Description
The protective interview: Releasing the tangled web of incest
By Elspeth McAdam, Peter Lang, Diana Henoa & Lennart Lorås
The protective interview: Releasing the tangled web of incest is a book centered on the topic of incestual abuse. Incestual abuse is defined as sexual activity between individuals of closer blood relationship than the culture allows. However, for this book, sexual abuse, not only from family members but others that are responsible for children will also be included. Professionals caring for people with a history of childhood abuse have often found it difficult to make sense of constantly changing symptoms, natural incoherence, dissociation with bizarre presentations (often seen as hysteria or psychosis) and cutting (seen as self-inflicted harm or attention-seeking behavior, a waste of precious medical time). These young people are given very pessimistic futures, often labelled as personality disordered, unhelpable, or in need of years of therapy. However, we consider them to be mobile, changeable and holding countless resources and strengths that professionals should help to liberate.
This book has been written after years of trying out different ways of working with young people who have suffered through abuses of power. This book takes you through some of our journeys with these young people, listening to their voices as well as to the voices of people important to them. In our experience, when listened to, these young people often lose their symptoms very quickly. Maybe because a closer relationship with their non-abusing parents develops or because they feel safe, and their secret has been brought out and spoken about, without them necessarily initiating the conversation. Our hope is that this book can be a contribution to release the tangled web of incest and suggest a dignifying way forward for the child, the family and the professional.
