Rape is considered as a reaction to a trauma with responses similar to other victims of severe stress. The rape response is best understood as a reaction of an unprepared individual to violence rather than a sexual crime; it is universally experienced as traumatic, evoking previous sexual and aggressive conflicts, reinforced by the real danger and real helplessness of the victim, who remains vulnerable to guilt, problems with self-esteem, and long lasting impairment in object relationships. Treatment of the rape victim must consider all of these issues as well as the external reality and possible countertransference bias in the professional which protects him from feelings of vulnerability.