ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some reflections on sexual abuse of children and then considers the issue of the emotional impact on girls who have been sexually abused and how it might affect their gender identity. On the basis of clinical experience and the limited research, child sexual abuse is not usually a major contributor to the appearance of a full-blown gender identity disorder in girls. However, in some cases it can affect gender identity development, internal body representations, and sexual relationships in a considerable way, even if this does not amount to all the clinical features of a gender identity disorder. Trying to understand childhood sexual abuse and its impact on thinking and memory, the chapter considers posttraumatic stress disorder, some features of which are applicable to child sexual abuse. One of the things that seem to happen in sexual abuse is that the split-off denied experience forms a bubble, which can become encapsulated.
