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The San Diego Psychoanalytic Society and Institute held a conference in 1992: “Victims of Abuse: The Emotional Impact of Child and Adult Trauma.” The identically titled monograph contains eleven essays. The editor cautions the reader that
the monograph was not meant to be a final answer to the complex problems we encounter in the trauma field today. At the same time, an attempt is made to widen the psychoanalytic framework from an emphasis on the intrapsychic origins of neurosis and character problems to a more interpersonal, developmental view of traumatic experiences, and to include traumas that occur during adulthood. The result is an eclectic collection of papers. Some of these essays may be viewed as an attempt to give an overview of the basic issues to clinicians not routinely involved with traumatized patients. Other essays are well written, with impressive authority, giving detailed, complex views on the specific subject.
The book focuses on chronic traumatic experiences, when the harm is not caused by a single traumatic experience, but by a chronic disruption in human relationships, resulting in self-fragmentation, distrust, low self-esteem, lack of control, lack of power, problems in intimacy, and feelings of unsafety. It is customary to refer to war trauma, prisoner of war and Concentration camp experiences, and chronic physical, sexual, and domestic violence as examples of chronic trauma. This book focuses mainly on chronic physical and sexual abuse and domestic violence.
Victims of Abuse is divided into two major sections. The first, “Phenomenology and Dynamics of Abuse and Trauma,” contains such varied subjects as PTSD and the legal system, the battered spouse syndrome, somatization as response to trauma, and externalization as a pathological form of relating. Part II, “Treatment Challenges with the Traumatized Patient,” includes articles on topics including repetition, reenactment and trauma, boundary violations in psychotherapy, and countertransferen