Psychoanalytic theory, child sexual abuse and clinical social work

Abstract

The relationship between psychoanalysis and child sexual abuse is a troubled and problematic one, dating from the birth of psychoanalysis as a theory explaining human behavior. At the outset of his career Freud began by asserting that all neuroses could be traced to childhood sexual assaults by parents or caretakers (Freud, 1896). Freud's rejection of his seduction theory created a more general and more easily accepted theory of the etiology of neuroses, but also lei~ him open to the critique by modern researchers on child sexual abuse that he thus contributed to the societal denial and minimization of sexual assaults on children. Despite the disagreements in social work over the positive or negative influence of Freudian theory (Perlman, 1957; Hellenbrand, 1972; Borenzweig, 1972; Alexander, 1972; YeUoly, 1980), obviously the theory has permeated much thinking in clinical social work practice. This paper will review the history of psychoanalytic theory in relation to child sexual abuse, looking at its cycles of relative acceptance and rejection for use in understanding sexual assaults on children. It will outline the seduction theory, which posited childhood seduction as the cause of adult neuroses. Included will be a discussion of the factors contr ibuting to the seduction theory's development and its subsequent rejection, from the perspectives of Freud's adherents and his detractors. A brief review will be made of psychoanalytic theory and t rea tment of incest, especially current literature which re-evaluates psychoanalytic methods in the light of recent empirical research establishing the extent of sexual abuse in society today. Then theories of incest developed outside the formal analytic tradition that both find a place for psychoanalytic formulations, and theories that reject psychoanalytic components