Sexual abuse is a subject that has received and continues to attract a considerable amount of scholarly attention. However, most studies tend to treat sexual abuse as strictly personal and isolated suffering. Following Sexual Abuse attempts to develop a broader perspective on this important issue via narrated accounts of women’s experiences. It is a sociological investigation that looks at the connection between the intra-personal and social worlds of victims as revealed through reflexive therapy.

Marie C. Croll explores the transformational space between intra-personal and social experiences of self, a dual perspective that allows room for both personal and collective experiences to enter into a discussion of sexual abuse and its effects. She argues that private and public interpretations need to be considered together as their influences on the individual are inseparable. Using individual case studies, Croll demonstrates the extent to which variable public perspectives on sexual abuse come to define victims’ relationships to their own accounts. Following Sexual Abuse offers vital sociological insights and contributes a necessary intra-personal vantage point to the experience of sexual abuse and reflexive therapy.

Marie C. Croll is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Social/Cultural Studies at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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