NCJ Number
151978
Journal
Journal of Psychohistory Volume: 19 Issue: 2 Dated: special issue (Fall 1991) Pages: complete issue
Editor(s)
L Demause
Date Published
1991
Length
121 pages
Annotation
Eight essays examine child sexual abuse from historical, cultural, and psychoanalytic perspectives.
Abstract
The first paper provides evidence to confirm the hypothesis that incest itself, rather the absence of incest, has been universal for most people in most places at most times. The second essay traces the history of the way in which the child- helping professions, notably psychiatrists, have viewed and treated child sexual abuse. The author concludes that these professions have hesitated to face human cruelty and the traumatic suffering of children at the hands of family members. Further, society is ambivalent about children; as much as it may want to protect them, it has negative attitudes toward children. A third paper examines the unconscious dynamics and motivations of the adults who engage in pedophiliac acts, followed by a paper that reviews the history of the sexual molestation of children, from the ancient period (time of the Greeks and Romans) to the late modern period (latter half of the 20th Century). Another essay considers the phenomenon of hypnosis as an object for the investigation of those psychological conditions that impede historical progress. Remaining papers comment on the article that discusses "the universality of incest." References accompany each paper.