Download the thesis - South Eastern Centre Against Sexual Assault

almost feel indiscernible and unnameable.Others such as experiences, situations or
feelings that have never existed such as feeling trust, wellbeing or a sense of safety,
may yet to be understood as losses. Some losses may be understood as a breach of
the victim’s “assumptive world”, a term used to describe how relationships, interactions
with and the experiences of others, as well as an individual’s lived experiences, inform
and impact upon daily and life decisions (Janoff-Bulman, Parkes). When the
assumptive world is formed or transformed by trauma, confidence to negotiate the
world is severely comprised, affecting survivors’ day-to-day activities and how their
lives will unfold and be experienced (Parkes).
The violation of the body through sexual abuse brings particular feelings of loss,
affecting not only the victim but also her/his existing and future relationships. The
losses of a positive relationship with one’s own body and mutual intimate pleasure are
two manifestations of this; for many, the elusiveness of a happy and healthy intimate
relationship that includes children is a profound loss. For others, relationships beyond
the intimate are also severely compromised or lost altogether. For example, in cultures
where sexual abuse is part of systemic and sanctioned political decisions, losses for
women can be severe and include the loss of life, family and self-respect or standing
within a community (Meintjes and Goldblatt; Gobodo-Madikizela, Ross and Mills; Tutu).
Although it is clear that victims suffer many losses as a result of sexual abuse, Laub
points out that the event has happened and nothing “can undo the horror” (Felman
and Laub 91). If there is to be a contented future, attention must be given to the
processes of facing the loss, and reuniting the world that has been destroyed with the
world that remains. Felman and Laub place testimony and witness at the centre of
facing the loss; Atkinson places the We Al-li 6 program based on the integrity of
indigenous culture and practice (94-145) at the centre of confronting community and
individual loss; I place acknowledgment and mourning.
6 We Al-li is the name given to a program that evolved from the participatory action
focus of Atkinson’s research and was informed by the work of Alice Miller (1983). The
work of the program was based on indigenous cultural and spiritual practices and was
the process of recreating ceremonies of healing in a contemporary situation (93-93 and
216).
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