The Trauma Myth: The Truth About the Sexual Abuse of Children-and Its Aftermath - Softcover

Clancy, Susan A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0465022111 ISBN 13: 9780465022113

Publisher: Basic Books, 2011

Synopsis

Rare Book

About this title

Review:

New York Times
“[T]he moral of Dr. Clancy’s story is clear: science should represent truth, not wishful thinking. When good data fly in the face of beloved theory, the theory has to go...Dr. Clancy writes with the precision and patient repetition of a good teacher on complicated terrain. Her prose could not be clearer, and her points are restated many, many times over.”

Salon.com
“The Trauma Myth is a nuanced and muscular work that takes a surprisingly straightforward approach to a tough subject matter.”

Publishers Weekly
“[A] nuanced psychological study.”

Carol Tavris, Ph.D., coauthor of Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me)
“With her usual clarity of prose and reasoning, Susan Clancy has written a calm and persuasive assessment of a volatile subject. I highly recommend this book for anyone with a personal or professional interest in child abuse—which should be all of us.”

Paul McHugh, University Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University; author of Try to Remember
“The Trauma Myth is not a debunking of the psychic damage that sexual abuse of children can cause or a denial of its existence. Rather it reveals how sexual abuse occurs and illuminates its pathogenic nature by drawing upon descriptions from people in the population at large rather than in the clinic. Read this book so as to understand just what is involved in these matters, to grasp what is needed to protect children from these experiences, and to treat them if they have been so miserably betrayed. It’s a great story of discovery – about truth, about interpretation, and about why truth matters.”

Sally Satel MD, Yale University School of Medicine; resident scholar at American Enterprise Institute; author of PC, M.D. and co-author of One Nation Under Therapy
“Psychologist Susan Clancy explodes conventional wisdom about child sexual abuse. Though never ever the child’s fault, as Clancy makes crystal clear, abuse is not usually experienced as traumatic when it occurs. Instead, the trauma often comes later, Clancy argues, when the therapeutic culture dictates to victims how they should feel about their experience. The Trauma Myth is an extremely brave book, filled with enough data to satisfy the open-minded skeptic and a great store of compassion for victims.”

Science
“Persuasive...Clancy approaches child abuse with sensitivity, empathy, and thoughtfulness.”

Internet Review of Books
“The Trauma Myth is an important addition to the growing literature in this field. Any fair-minded person who reads her nuanced and balanced discussion likely will conclude that Clancy’s sole interest is learning the truth about what happens to young victims.”
 Choice“This excellent book asks important questions about understanding of child-abuse experiences at the time and subsequently...Highly recommended.”

PsychologyToday.com
“The Trauma Myth is a serious effort to deal with child sexual abuse and its aftermath...I hope readers will give [the book] the careful attention it deserves.”

 

Commonweal Magazine
“In her new book, Susan A. Clancy offers a powerful and unsettling message about childhood sexual abuse in the United States... It’s a compelling story... The data presented in these pages provide an urgent corrective to societal misconceptions about abuse.”

 

About the Author:

Susan A. Clancy, Ph.D., is Research Director of the Center for Women's Advancement, Development, and Leadership at INCAE, the Central American Institute for Business Administration in Nicaragua. She received her Ph.D. from Harvard and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Managua, Nicaragua.

About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0465022111
• ISBN 13: 9780465022113
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256