You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
For a book of some 300 pages, this volume contains a striking breadth and depth of material. Given the scope of the book, and the fact that it brings together writers from different disciplines, it could easily have resulted in a book that skimmed the surface. This pitfall is avoided, on the whole, by having a mix of theoretical-type chapters and more specific chapters devoted to detailed presentation of clinical case-material.
The editors state their aim as being to contribute to
…the development of the interdisciplinary thinking and dialogue we believe is necessary to the formation and implementation of effective and compassionate responses to abuse.
The book brings together writers from analytic psychotherapy, social work and social policy, all of whom are committed to a psychodynamic way of working. Much of the academic literature on abuse restricts itself to specific types of abuse. Whilst this may be appropriate for some research, it inevitably leads to a neglect of the fact that different forms of abuse often coexist, and to some extent share common psychological origins. As such, this book is an important attempt to redress the balance. The editors deliberately did not offer contributors any definition of abuse, preferring — I think wisely — to leave the understanding of abuse as broad as possible. The range of material in the book includes childhood sexual abuse, emotional deprivation, domestic violence, bullying in the workplace, racial abuse, and politically motivated torture. Subjects often neglected, such as Old Age, Homosexuality and Learning Disability, are also covered.
The book is divided into five sections. The first section looks at individual and interpersonal aspects of abuse from a theoretical perspective. There is a chapter on attachment theory by Jeremy Holmes, one on systems theory and unconscious group processes, as well as another on object relations theory. Also included in this section is a striking contribution from Phil Mollon, in which he