Bad Theories Can Harm Victims
3 Pages Posted: 23 Mar 2010 Last revised: 5 Jun 2012
Date Written: March 12, 2010
Abstract
The conventional trauma model posits that sexual abuse of children is inevitably frightening, always carried out against the child’s will, and necessarily damaging to the child. In The Trauma Myth, psychologist Susan Clancy argues that this model is not only wrong but damaging to a large class of genuine victims. She and others have uncovered innumerable victims who did experienced abuse, but did not experience it as traumatic or and did not fully understand what was being done. These victims are unwittingly made to feel guilty since their cases do not fit with the popular theory. In the interests of minimizing harm to them, and in the name of good science, the conventional one-size-fits-all trauma model ought to be discarded.
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