The psychoanalytic view of child sexual abuse: past errors and continuing relevance

Abstract

Far from existing only as a fantasy, incest is thus also a fact … Where the chances of harming a child’s normal developmental growth are concerned, it ranks higher than abandonment, neglect, physical maltreatment or any other form of abuse. It would be a fatal mistake to underrate either the importance or the frequency of its actual occurrence (Anna Freud, 1981: p.34).