Healing the Incest Wound: Adult Survivors in Therapy

by Christine A. Courtois

A comprehensive guide to the dynamics of incest and to therapy for survivors. Occasionally a book for psychotherapists instantly becomes a classic. Not only do clinicians recognize the excellence and importance of the book, but their clients respond enthusiastically to the accurate portrayal of their experiences and the model for healing. With the publication of Healing the Incest Wound , such a classic was born.

Incest is not a rare aberrant happening, but a common childhood experience for a substantial minority of children. Since incest is generally hidden and denied, the victims are left to cope with their reactions in an atmosphere that contradicts their reality. Yet all incest is not the same; for instance, one-time fondling by an uncle has different effects from rapes repeated over many years by a stepfather. The book describes these variations and the symptoms, short-term aftereffects, and long-term secondary elaborations of incest from four theoretical traumatic stress, developmental, feminist, and loss. The author not only comprehensively discusses the salient issues of incest therapy but also illustrates these with numerous case studies, showing how incest survivors can heal and build a core of self-respect and dignity.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Reference

416 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1988

Reviews

[char]

First of all sorry to put a potentially triggering topic on everyone's feed, I hope putting it under a spoiler will hide it.



Overall I was pleasently surprised by the author's handling of this topic. I still found it a very difficult read and I wouldn't recommend it readily. Cases of incest and its effects are described explicitly (if always in strictly clinical context), and I can't say if (other) survivors will find the author's dissection helpful or healing, but I did set 16 bookmarks and would've set more had I not run out, so I must have taken something from it.

Unfortunately, in my opinion lgbt survivors are treated somewhat strangely by the author, who chooses to stress at several points that homosexual incest is 'generally experienced as a positive', which strikes me as an odd side-note to give after explaining that the effects are generally the same no matter the sexual identity of the child. But that could be me being sensitive.
I also feel that the author blunders at addressing racism as a factor despite part of Ch. 13 'Special Populations' being devoted to ethnicity, especially in contrast with a following section on the complication survivors with mental or physical disabilities face, in which she illustrates how ableism strengthens the double-bind the survivor is under very well and movingly.

[Laura]

While this topic is heavy and can cause literal nausea at certain points in reading, the treatment focus of this book is so practical and thorough. Although I would argue that trauma is the most intense and complicated area in counseling, this text gets me excited to go into trauma therapy.