Deconstructing Autobiographical Accounts of Childhood Sexual Abuse: Some Critical Reflections

Abstract

Much of the literature on ‘surviving’ childhood sexual abuse has traditionally relied on approaches which assume a reflective transparency between the original experience and retrospective accounts of trauma. In recent years, however, social constructionist approaches have encouraged the deconstruction of personal accounts of childhood sexual abuse as a means of explicating the cultural narratives underlying the constitution of such experiences. Drawing on the author’s previous ethnomethodological/discourse analytic work in this area, this article develops a critical orientation towards such approaches, arguing that they tend to lose sight of human agency and personal subjectivity. A detailed consideration of these issues leads to a critical evaluation of the utility of such approaches with regard to the investigation of traumatizing experiences.