Childhood Sexual Abuse and the Construction of Identity: Healing Sylvia.

By Michele Davies. London, England: Taylor & Francis, 1995, 167 pages. $23.00. Shattered Innocence: A Practical Guide for Counseling Women Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse. By Neil Weiner & Sharon E. Robinson Kurpius. Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis, 1995, 198 pages. $24.95.

Reviewed by Martha S. Zlokovich, Ph.D., Southeast Missouri State University, Department of Psychology, Cape Girardeau, MO 63701.

Although both books cover information on the prevalence, causes, and cultural views of childhood sexual abuse, as well as aids to recovery, they each represent very different approaches to the study of sexual abuse. In Childhood Sexual Abuse and the Construction of Identity: Healing Sylvia, Michele Davies provides a detailed analysis of Sylvia Fraser's autobiography, My Father's House: A Memoir of Incest and Healing (1989). Whereas Davies examines the experience of one individual as a means of addressing issues critical to sexual abuse survivors, Neil Weiner and Sharon E. Robinson Kurpius illuminate their points through the examination of many personal histories throughout Shattered Innocence: A Practical Guide for Counseling Women Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse.

Childhood Sexual Abuse and the Construction of Identity: Healing Sylvia is a study of Sylvia Fraser's autobiography, in which Fraser details her discovery of repressed memories of sexual abuse at the hands of her father. Davies analyzes Fraser's text by applying ideas and techniques gleaned from linguistics (discourse analysis), cultural/radical feminism, socialist feminism, philosophy, and psychology.

The crux of Davies' analysis is that if truth and knowledge are defined as that which is personally known, without any relationship to cultural, social, or political influences, then each individual may support a different truth, and no one individual's version of truth may be challenged or, more importantly, ultimately accepted. In other words, there are serious practical consequences of placing truth entirely in the realm of personal experience, which Davies argues undermines common ground upon which these descriptions could be judged. As she discusses, proponents of False Memory Syndrome have already set about trying to prove that these personal descriptions--such as Fraser's--cannot represent truth.

Davies asserts that personal accounts of childhood abuse written in the 1960s and '70s took a socialist feminism perspective, incorporating the personal and social-political-historical arenas, whereas more recent accounts take a healing discourse perspective. According to the healing discourse perspective, truth is unique and idiosyncratic to the individual. Davies argues that this perspective is predominant in Fraser's depiction of her understanding of what truly happened to her, of her own knowledge, and of reality.

The application of psychology to Fraser's text relies primarily on psychoanalytic theory, which Davies argues organizes Fraser's account. Throughout her writing, Fraser maintains three narrative voices, representing the id, ego, and superego. Davies details evidence that the organization of Fraser's book follows the sequence of psychoanalytic therapy and that themes related to the Oedipal complex appear.

Davies' text is written in a scholarly style, introducing literature from a variety of fields. Most chapters are heavily referenced and end with several footnotes. Although these aspects of the writing may make her book less accessible to laypersons, the issues involved in supporting the veracity of claims by those who have suffered childhood sexual abuse make this book important.

Weiner and Robinson Kurpius begin their guide for counselors of women survivors of childhood sexual abuse by reviewing the prevalence of sexual abuse, the definition of sexual abuse, and the tendency for children to hide their experiences. They then examine how popular children's stories may represent the experiences of sexually abused children. In The Wizard of Oz, for example, Weiner and Robinson Kurpius point out that like an abused child, Dorothy must recover three parts of her self--courage, love, and rational thinking. The examination of culture through children's books, movies, and stories is a device Weiner and Robinson Kurpius also use to consider sexual abuse from historical and cultural viewpoints.

The cultural stories range from the Bible's admonition that "He that spareth the rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him correcteth him betimes" (Proverbs 13:24) (p. 12) to an analysis of the Stephen King novel IT King's story is presented as a metaphor for adult survivors' confrontation of their past as victims of childhood sexual abuse. The analyses of stories such as Peter Pan, The Velveteen Rabbit or How Toys Become Real, The Wonder Wizard of Oz, and IT, as well as the theories of Erikson and Freud, provide different contexts for understanding the experiences of abused children. Although I believe these analyses may assist therapists by providing a familiar context in which to draw out a survivor's stories, the analyses would, however, benefit from making more clear where the author's or theorist's views ended and the views of Weiner and Robinson Kurpius began. Did Erikson write about the specific effects of sexual abuse at different stages of personality development? Did Stephen King write IT with the specific childhood trauma of sexual abuse in mind? In addition, four major theorists in child development (Erikson, Freud, Piaget, and Kohlberg) are all covered in a mere six pages.

Even though the coverage of child-development theories is sparse, there are particular strengths of this book, such as the use of personal histories as a means of illustrating main points. For example, the difficulties of diagnosing childhood sexual abuse among adults is illustrated through the description of a 33-year-old woman named Linda (a composite of several cases). Linda's dissatisfaction with her intimate, sexual relationships, as well as her history of a variety of other presenting problems, including depression, suicidal thoughts, alcohol abuse, obesity, and fear of being touched, provide an intimate portrait of a woman coming to terms with her sexual abuse. This coming to terms includes Linda's difficulty with believing her memories represent real events from her past. The possibility of memory distortion also is explored through the story of Ann, who had been through 10 years of unsuccessful therapy with 8 therapists before eventually remembering her abuse. The controversy surrounding recovered memories is addressed within personal descriptions such as these. Ego-splitting as a form of coping is presented through the personal stories of several women, and the next-to-the-last chapter is a woman's first-person account of discovery and healing.

A second strength of this book is the presentation of important points in lists: life transitions that may trigger emotional difficulties stemming from the abuse, factors likely to influence the length of therapy, the four stages of therapeutic process, techniques for helping clients with the process of recovery, and suggestions for individuals to select the best therapist. In addition, these lists organize information in a simple manner, making the book accessible to counselors, students, laypersons, and sexual abuse survivors.

Reference

Fraser, S. (1989). My father's house: A memoir of incest and healing. London: Virago.