The secret trauma : incest in the lives of girls and women

The Secret Trauma remains the definitive argument for the overwhelming prevalence of incestuous abuse. Based on findings about San Francisco, the book makes a persuasive case for an epidemic of abuse on a national scale. In her nuanced and sophisticated analysis, Russell carefully explores the complex variables of incestuous abuse: the changing incidence of abuse over time, the severity of th abuse, the victim's age, factors of class, race, and ethnicity, and long term effects on victims.In a new introduction to the revised edition, Russell takes on the most important issue to arise in the field since the book was originally published in 1986: the serious backlash that followed the outpouring of reports by victims/survivors, and the controversy over false accusations and false memories." The Secret Trauma remains the definitive study of the overwhelming prevalence of incestuous abuse in American families. Basing her findings on her large-scale study, Diana E. H. Russell makes a persuasive case for an epidemic of abuse on a national scale. The Secret Trauma is a nuanced and sophisticated analysis of the complex variables of incestuous abuse: the changing incidence of abuse over time; the severity of the abuse; the victim's age; factors of class, race, and ethnicity, and long-term effects on victims. Presents the results of a study on sexually abused girls based on in-depth interviews with 930 women from a variety of backgrounds Many of the findings reported and discussed in this book are unprecedented, shocking, and deeply disturbing.