Recollecting our Lives
Women's Experiences of Childhood Sexual Abuse
Women's Research Centre
Publisher: Press Gang Publisher
Year Published: 1989
Pages: 272pp ISBN: ISBN 0-88974-019-4
Resource Type: Book
Cx Number: CX4123
Abstract:
This book deals with women's experience of childhood sexual abuse from analysis of the abuse itself through consequences, and towards healing in later life. Based upon interviews with seventeen adult survivors and eight mothers of abused children, the book serves less as a scholarly text than as aid and encouragement for women and children who are still struggling to survive abuse and its consequences.
Recollecting Our Lives addresses the atmosphere and detail of family life, the violence, coercion, and misused authority of the abuser, and the confusion, powerlessness, and psychological and emotional trauma of the victim. It describes the consequences of the abuse in later life -- crippling confusion, extremes of behaviour, self-estrangement -- and the process of healing, including positive survival skills, self-awareness, and self-acceptance. The book is critical of the disregard for women's and children's rights and safety by institutions prepared to "excuse abusers' behaviour and to blame the victim."
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