Analysis of the Incest Trauma

Childhood sexual abuse within the family of origin and society's institutions, such as the church, education, sports, and the world of celebrity, has been neglected as a significant issue by psychoanalysis and society. The incest trauma needs to be understood as one of the most significant problems of contemporary society.This book is an attempt to re-establish incest trauma as a significant psychological disorder by tracing the evolutionary trajectory of psychoanalysis from the Seduction Theory to the Oedipal Therapy to the Confusion of Tongues Theory. By examining the theoretical, emotional, interpersonal, and political issues involved in Freud's abandoning the Seduction Hypothesis and replacing it with the Oedipal Complex, we can see how system building became more important than the emotional welfare of children. In a series of chapters the authors demonstrate this neglect of the incest trauma. Several case studies, using a Relational Perspective informed by the Budapest School of Psychoanalysis, illustrate the need to use the Confusion of Tongues theory of trauma originated by Ferenczi, as well his idea of expanding the analytic method to include non-interpretative measures to successfully analyze the incest trauma.

Susan A. Klett, LCSW-R, BCD, NCPsyA, is Co-Director of the Washington Square Institute (WSI); a Training and Supervising Analyst, and Founder and Director of the Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) Training and Group Program. She is also a Contributing Editor of WSI's Journal 'Issues in Psychoanalytic Psychology'; a Past President of the Postgraduate Psychoanalytic Society, and Former Chair of the Education Committee of the New York State Society for Clinical Social Work. She has published articles and reviews on trauma, eating and personality disorders and the psychoanalytic process, and has presented both nationally and internationally. She maintains a private practice in Manhattan. Arnold W. Rachman, PhD, FAGPA, is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Institute of the Postgraduate Psychoanalytic Society, New York; a Clinical Professor of Psychology at Derner Institute, Adelphi University; Associate Professor of Psychiatry, New York University Medical School; on the Faculty of the Trauma and Disaster Studies Program, New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis; on the Board of Directors, Sandor Ferenczi Study Center, New School for Social Research; and author of: 'Sandor Ferenczi: The Psychotherapist of Tenderness and Passion' and 'Psychotherapy of Difficult Cases: Flexibility & Responsiveness in Clinical Practice'.