NCJ Number
145394
Journal
Journal of Child Sexual Abuse Volume: 2 Issue: 1 Dated: (1993) Pages: 135-140
Date Published
1993
Length
6 pages
Annotation
While treatment for victims of sexual molestation relies on portraying them as victims, rather than as drive driven, there are therapists who believe that the child's participation in the abuse is a manifestation of his or her own sexuality.
Abstract
Modern psychologists would alter Freud's belief that the object of the drive is most readily changed to concede that a child's drive for warmth or affection could be transferred to a sexual drive. Object relations theory allows for the conceptualization of an individual whose earlier object relations left him feeling isolated and lonely being predisposed or vulnerable to sexual abuse. While children with adequate nurturing will reject sexual overtures or signs of exploitation, children suffering early deprivation may see the situation as a means of attaining attention. The psychological effects on the child victim depend on the age of onset, the pattern of the occurrence, the gender of the abuser, and the level of ego development achieved by the child. Treatment of sexual abuse victims should focus on the child's disappointment and sense of betrayal rather than in terms of the culpability of the perpetrator in order to deal with the child's issues and not the projections and defenses of outsiders.