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In this slim volume, Calvin Colarusso offers a window into the circumstances and developmental outcomes of childhood sexual abuse. Although he includes brief overviews of development and explications of phase-specific vulnerabilities, most of the book is devoted to case studies, wherein the reader bears witness to the suffering and deformation of development that typically follow sexual trauma. Written from his position as an expert witness in civil suits, where he had the occasion to evaluate over 100 cases, in addition to his over 40 years' experience treating victims of sexual abuse, Colarusso approaches his subject with gravity and humility. While he is an ardent advocate of psychodynamic treatment for these individuals, he is not unduly optimistic about the possibility of reversing the impact of the traumatic experience. Nor does he simplify the developmental trajectory to a linear outcome. However, the evidence is plain that the reverberations of abuse are pervasive and profound.
Colarusso's approach is effective due to the sheer repetitiveness of these stories - the reader becomes increasingly appalled at the routine violations of innocence and trust in the hands of responsible adult caretakers as well as random strangers. The cases and the précis of development are arranged according to the age at which the individual was evaluated; this serves to illustrate the impact of the abuse on the tasks and challenges of each developmental epoch and supports Colarusso's assertion that the entire lifespan is subject to the deleterious impact of childhood abuse. He clearly shows how the traumatic experience is revisited with each new developmental challenge and how it distorts every new level of adaptation.
The evaluations succinctly describe both the abuse (to the extent it is remembered) and the repercussions in subsequent development. The write-ups appear to be faithful reports of interviews and excerpts of testing from court hearings; they do not purport to be in-dep