ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the narratives of five men and women who were remaining defiant and refusing to be defined by their childhood sexual experiences. It explores the coping mechanisms they used in their dysfunctional families and their need to feel normal. The chapter describes how they overcame the profound impact that their experiences had on them. It outlines how they grew spiritually and transcended their experiences, and didn't want to be stereotyped as a result of their childhood maltreatment. Five men and women did not want their identities to be linked to their childhood experiences which they believed they had transcended. The main characteristic of those telling this narrative was that they refused to have their identities linked to their childhood maltreatment. They were fully aware of the impact that these experiences had had on their lives, but they rejected the way that society tried to label them as either victims or survivors.
