Women's Narratives of Healing from the Effects of Child Sexual Abuse

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that conveys the complexity of the women’s narratives, and the process of healing from the context of the body and the subjective self in relation to the social and political world. I conclude that the women are healing from an assault on the self, manifested by an assault on the body. I searched for an answer to the question: How does healing from child sexual abuse happen for women, and this led me to wonder what it is that the women are healing from. Through the acts of sexual abuse, ownership of her soul is contested. What she is healing from is a theft of the most personal nature. These stories of healing are about the body speaking of the violence and its presence in her body, and most importantly, about women reclaiming their selves. 6
Chapter 2 Background and Related Work This chapter provides background on child sexual abuse (CSA) and on health and healing from CSA. In addition, narrative research on healing from child sexual abuse is presented followed by discussions on memory and child sexual abuse, and on the body and child sexual abuse. 2.1 Child Sexual Abuse This section provides background on child sexual abuse by first describing its history and the awareness of child sexual abuse as an issue. Subsequently, a definition of child sexual abuse and its prevalence is provided, followed by discussions addressing child sexual abuse and secrecy, and child sexual abuse and women. 2.1.1 History of Child Sexual Abuse In 1962, Dr. Henry Kempe coined the term ‘the battered child syndrome’, which had a significant impact on the understanding of harm to children as ‘child abuse’ rather than the previously framed notion of neglect or cruelty to children. 12,13 In the 1960s, child abuse and neglect meant physical abuse and neglect. Sexual abuse was absent from the discourse. Awareness of sexual abuse of children existed for police officers, social workers, psychotherapists, and ministers of religion at that time, but sexual abuse in the family became an acknowledged social problem only after 1975, when “it was left to feminist activists to make public sexual abuse of children as child abuse.” 12 Kitzinger notes that prior to the mid 1980s the mass media recognized child sexual abuse in occasional ‘flurries’ “around abductions and rapes by strangers, and incest was rarely mentioned.” 14 “Sexual abuse was known by a roll call of murdered children and profiles of particular individuals,” until the 1980s and 1990s, when it became a high profile issue. 14 7
Page 1 and 2: Women’s Narratives of Healing fro
Page 3 and 4: Abstract The health of women is com
Page 5 and 6: For my parents Charlotte & Charles
Page 7 and 8: 3.1.1 Power . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 9 and 10: C Initial Contact Information 199 D
Page 11 and 12: List of Figures 8.1 A Model of Heal
Page 13 and 14: Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Motivati
Page 15 and 16: The therapeutic literature on recov
Page 17: analysis techniques, holistic conte
Page 21 and 22: abuse as an issue had a personal as
Page 23 and 24: Now that the courts are more open t
Page 25 and 26: One of the main findings in a Saska
Page 27 and 28: the dilemma of the survivor of seve
Page 29 and 30: that the use of diagnostic language
Page 31 and 32: Csordas suggests the object of heal
Page 33 and 34: trajectory perspective, looking for
Page 35 and 36: emember and those who forget, and b
Page 37 and 38: three traits of body memories: marg
Page 39 and 40: Lock and Scheper-Hughes include in
Page 41 and 42: elationships and behaviours. Women
Page 43 and 44: Chapter 3 Methodology This chapter
Page 45 and 46: fixed, or a single unit, but rather
Page 47 and 48: Bloom discusses the role of power i
Page 49 and 50: detachable from the surrounding dis
Page 51 and 52: process of hearing the women tell t
Page 53 and 54: to identify a minimum of two suppor
Page 55 and 56: esearcher inquiry. Making data is a
Page 57 and 58: and there would be no way to identi
Page 59 and 60: The women’s stories of healing we
Page 61 and 62: in the silencing of women’s voice
Page 63 and 64: I chose to eliminate unnecessary de
Page 65 and 66: events or some of the issues she fa
Page 67 and 68: Overview of healing story She began
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needs, and to meet them, much as sh
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ship with her husband. She uses uni
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could not explain, all of which end
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this.” 4.9 Jennifer Jennifer is i
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told her what happened she believed
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4.12 Connie Connie is a full-time g
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Telling her story Sonshine was a de
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4.15 The Researcher and the Women
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Chapter 5 Naming, Remembering and M
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There is little public discourse of
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flashbacks; severe depression; or a
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5.1.1 Memories without a name Nine
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and I even tried with a woman too,
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my case was truly childhood sexual
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As a child, Nel remembers knowing t
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she believed that her mother saw sy
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home . . . I was sent to a neurolog
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As she said, “For me, you don’t
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She described this as not having an
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couldn’t believe, and I mean this
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In the stories, several of the wome
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was collaborative law. 3 Les found
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enough that when I went to high sch
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5.2 Support and Safety Every resear
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that they would not hurt her, and t
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an adult] I told her my story of se
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I went to the Vagina Monologues. An
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Jennifer had a sense early on in he
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The women’s stories indicate that
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if she got it again, which she woul
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Chapter 6 Restorying Life is sort o
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Table 6.1: Restorying. A Chronologi
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Les’s broader story of healing, h
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and she said ‘yes’, and he then
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For M.C., her first naming occurred
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accomplish anything but minimal tas
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For all of the women, their point o
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ecame clear that she had been sexua
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impacts, and then volunteering, whi
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as they are contained in her body t
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While a pattern was found in the wo
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Chapter 7 Body Fee fi fo she smells
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So the (memory of the) molesting ca
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she has a new way of understanding
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have a problem’(body politic), an
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to see a specialist like immediatel
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probably one of the hardest things
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I was a very promiscuous child from
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ut her main focus is cranial sacral
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from my uncle and from the rape tha
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like [breathing in a panicked manne
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For Connie, her body spoke the know
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naming, to disrupting and then recl
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when one of the research participan
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FEE FI FO Fee fi fo she smells his
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The women are healing from the effe
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social world and the individual. Th
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to ‘see’ the wind, or the norma
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meaning was attached to the experie
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the biggest rule being ‘you don
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threatening risk. This is where sup
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the master narrative of one of her
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Chapter 9 Conclusion While comparab
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transcripts were analyzed using hol
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Pattern of Healing When all fourtee
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lation to other research in the are
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The most important finding from thi
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• to investigate the relationship
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14. Kitzinger J. Transformations of
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45. Scheper-Hughes N. A Talent for
Page 209 and 210:
Appendix A K.Wood 503 Copland Cresc
Page 211 and 212:
When a potential research participa
Page 213 and 214:
system, including self-selected pse
Page 215 and 216:
Appendix F Data/Transcript Release
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Women's Narratives of Healing from the Effects of Child Sexual Abuse

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