Reviews

Many victims and survivors of childhood abuse are increasingly
making clear that they are helped by reading the accounts of others.
This can lessen isolation and sometimes provide hope and inspiration.
Morven Fyfe is one of the survivor-professionals who openly shows
how she can be bilingual in her understanding. Apart from the useful
educational information for all professionals and laypeople involved in
the subject-including those often forgotten, such as dentists, the heart
of the book comes from a questionnaire she devised that provided a
frame on which people could place their life stories. This includes
questions about home, discipline, good bonding, school, memory,
possessions before leading onto the experiences and secrecy around
abuse. The book therefore provides not only moving first person
accounts but the chance for the reader to be actively involved in
creating their own story. My only disagreement, as a psychoanalyst,
is the blaming of Freud for all societal difficulties in facing the reality
of abuse. Freud was savagely attacked for his initial emphasis on the
reality of child abuse by middle class abusers (always the hardest group
to confront) and whilst, as Fyfe accurately points out, the profound
insights of Ferenczi had to wait before being reclaimed, our human
difficulties in dealing with the reality of trauma have always existed
and sadly will continue. However, books that unpack secrecy, like this,
aid our task to confront the reality of secret trauma.

Valerie Sinason, Director, Clinic for Dissociative Studies

14th May 2008

Morven Fyfe has produced a work that should go a long way to increase our understanding of the thorny subject of child abuse. While no longer strictly taboo, this is a subject that few people feel comfortable even contemplating, never mind discussing. With a painstaking approach to the subject based on case studies, she eases us into a more complete awareness of the widespread nature of this phenomenon, and its effects. Calling upon her own knowledge, dexterity and sympathy she explores ways in which professionals and other interested parties collude unwittingly, through their overall lack of vision and ability to work effectively together, in compounding what is already a human tragedy.
She goes easy on the reader. She never condemns, but argues effectively that this is a problem for us all. Within a soft velvet glove, her arguments are as strong as steel. Most importantly she illustrates through the case studies how survivors use their resilience, skills and intelligence to become mature, successful adults - seemingly against the odds. This is not a book you should expect to read cover to cover – it can be read in separate sections. It’s for anyone who really wants to understand more about some of the most chequered aspects of human existence - for them it is a book that can be highly recommended.

Francis Verity, education consultant.

28th April 2008