The Long Shadow of Sexual Abuse : Developmental Effects across the Life Cycle

This book describes the profound interferences with normal developmental processes that occur throughout the life cycle as a result of chronic child sexual abuse. This conviction is supported by the presentation of detailed case histories of individuals ranging in age from five to sixty three.

The Long Shadow of Sexual Abuse: Developmental Effects across the Life Cycle has one simple purpose—to describe the profound interferences with normal developmental processes that occur in every subsequent developmental phase throughout life as the result of chronic child sexual abuse. Through the presentation of detailed case histories of individuals ranging in age from five to the early sixties, Colarusso convincingly demonstrates that the effects are life long. Sections on normal development for childhood, adolescence, young, and middle adulthood are followed by case histories, arranged chronologically according to the age of the victims at the time they were evaluated. Then the effects of the sexual abuse are traced through subsequent developmental phases to the chronological present. Colarusso illuminates how the passage of time actually increases the pathological effects of chronic child sexual abuse due to interferences with the developmental tasks of adolescence and adulthood.