NCJ Number
128874
Date Published
1990
Length
55 pages
Annotation
This chapter details the techniques of abreactive work involved in the treatment of dissociated memories of childhood sexual abuse.
Abstract
Abreaction is the revivification of past memory with the release of bound emotion and the recovery of repressed or dissociated aspects of a remembered event. Abreaction is an essential part of treating sexual abuse survivors. It provides a psychic reworking of the trauma that identifies, releases, and assimilates the unresolved aspects of the abuse, allowing resolution and integration on both psychological and physiological levels. The concept of dissociation is important in abreactive work and provides the foundation for understanding and managing abreactions. Dissociation is a psychophysiological process in which there is a separation or nonintegration of emotions, thoughts, sensations, or behaviors from the current stream of consciousness. When an experience is more than a child's mind can tolerate, the child instinctively disengages the feelings, behaviors, or cognitive knowledge associated with the abusive events and deflects them into a separate consciousness in which the events are recorded and encoded. After discussing the nature and containment of spontaneous abreactions, this chapter presents a model for planned abreactions, followed by a description of steps therapists can take to ensure the client's psychic safety during abreactions. A clinical example of the abreactive process is presented, and countertransference issues are considered. 98 references