ABSTRACT
Abused and abuser dynamics are examined primarily in child–adult relationships, with some attention also given to adult dyads. The particular irony of Sigmund Freud sharing his perspective about what he claimed were inaccurate recollections of childhood sexual abuse is that he was sharing them with a man who appeared to be an abuser. It is clear that right from the time that Freud announced his original theory regarding a sexual abuse etiology for hysteria in 1896, that the abused and the abuser have been inexorably entwined. Like many abuse victims, it took most of his life for Robert Fliess to even briefly draw attention to the fact that despite the outer trappings of professional respectability, his father was highly abusive. The manner in which the relationship between abusers and their victims maintains silence and acquiescence is the central reason for many grievous crimes never being reported. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
