Sexual Abuse: The Abusive Family Unit1

There were three presentations, beginning with ‘Sexual abuse: The abusive family unit’, which was given by Maria Kuitca, with Elda Irungaray. The authors presented the results of an investigation, the aim of which was to ascertain if it was possible to evaluate the degree of success in the psychoanalytical treatment of infant/juvenile sexual abuse, and used a clinical case study to exemplify their presentation. The theoretical investigation used a number of theoretical parameters which included physical and socio-environmental factors and the characteristics of the psychosexual development of the child used in psychoanalysis, which include the concept of the early Oedipus. It was emphasized that the critical developmental stage of the child is of fundamental importance when sexual abuse takes place. Other theoretical parameters mentioned were group violence, the interplay of roles, and the pathology of the transgressor, whose borderline substratum may be concealed behind a melancholic and psychopathic defence system. The differentiation between these two factors is fundamental in as far as this may change the prognosis and the possibility of working towards the reconstitution of family bonds even in the absence of the family members living together. Also mentioned as a theoretical parameter was the degree of risk for the abused child after the revealing of the secret which had been maintained within the family unit or from the outside world. In both the former and the latter, the determinant factors are implicit in the unconscious family structure. Finally, a difference between sexual abuse, rape and incest was also mentioned. It was stressed that, in order to monitor the progress of the therapeutic task, it should be carried out within an interdisciplinary network which would enable the integration of individual therapeutic intervention with that of the family, the couple and other social organisms. It was highlighted that violence in the context of the family aris