ABSTRACT
The temptation for therapist and child to divide the world into "good guys" and "bad guys" can be quite powerful, especially when people feel pressured by external forces to clearly separate the two, to assign guilt to the perpetrator and thereby, assure the child of innocence. This knowledge may, more frequently than people likes to admit, quietly contribute to the recommendation for brief therapy, crisis intervention, or treatment that focuses on symptom reduction rather than introspection. Psychotherapy with abused children is not an easy endeavor. These children do not trust easily; they test our patience over and over again. People conclude that a psychotherapy that depends on reflection, or learning about intrapsychic processes through the examination of interpersonal exchanges, may be just too hard, even impossible. In the sessions in which the manifest content concerned Peggy's attempts to trap Alex or secretly reveal the molestation to her teachers, Peggy was often quite talkative.
