Psychotherapy with Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse: The Invisible Men

by Alan Corbett

Overview

While the psychotherapeutic world has made significant strides in documenting the treatment of women victims of sexual abuse, little has been written on therapeutic responses to men. This may be understood as being partly due to the reluctance of male survivors to expose their history of abuse to clinical eyes. This may be exacerbated by a particular brand of masculine shame that causes male victims to be even more silenced than female survivors. Based on the author's extensive clinical experience of working with children and adult victims of sexual crime, Psychotherapy with Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse looks at the long history of male sexual abuse, positioning it not simply as a new phenomenon, but one that has a long but undocumented history. Anonymised case studies provide the backdrop for in-depth explorations of various consequences of sexual abuse, including sexual addiction, profound depression, gender dysphoria, eating disorders, self harm, suicidal ideation, and dissociation. The potentially toxic impact of sexual abuse upon the partners and families of survivors is also examined, alongside the effect upon the therapist of working with the aftermath of sexual aggression. Working with men who have been abused, either in childhood or in adulthood, involves working with profound shame and secrecy, with many victims having lived their lives in a cocoon of repression and silence. This book is a huge step forward in breaking that silence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781781816752
Publisher:	Karnac Books
Publication date:	09/21/2016
Series:	Forensic Psychotherapy Monograph Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	482 KB

About the Author

Dr Alan Corbett was Chair of the Training Committee of the Institute of Psychotherapy and Disability, and a member of the Training Committee of the Guild of Psychotherapists. He was Director of Respond, National Clinical Director of the CARI Foundation, and Clinical Director of ICAP. He was a training analyst and supervisor, a psychotherapist with the School of Life, Consultant Psychotherapist with the Clinic for Dissociative Studies, and consulted to a wide range of organisations. He also taught on a number of psychoanalytic trainings in Britain and Ireland, lectured internationally and published widely on disability, psychotherapy and trauma.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
About the Author
Series Editor’s Foreword—Brett Kahr
Introduction

1) The invisible men: a brief history of male survival
2) Toxic masculinity: the impact of sexual aggression upon the male psyche
3) Numbers: working with sexual compulsion
4) There is no such thing as a survivor: forensic psychotherapy and the abused/abuser split
5) On not knowing the colour of a patient’s eyes: working with profound depression
6) Dying to be a woman: grievances and attacks on gender
7) Starving for two: working with embodied trauma
8) Physician heal thyself: the impact of trauma upon the clinician
9) The disunited states: working with dissociation
10) A crowded marriage: working with couples
11) Becoming visible: on seeing and being seen

References
Index