Bearing the unbearable — Working with the abused mind

SUMMARY

The paper discusses some issues concerned with the psychoanalytic treatment of adults who have memories of being sexually abused as children. Issues covered include the nature of the abused mind, the nature of memories of abuse and the way that the abusing experience may be repeated in the analysis by making an emotional impact of a particular kind on the analyst. The title refers to how the analyst may need to help the patient bear unbearable experiences which the immature abused child could not deal with effectively. Clinical material from an adult analysis is presented to highlight the latter theme. But, in addition, the author's extensive experience of working with severely broken-down families, who are admitted as in-patients to the Family Unit of the Cassel Hospital, London, is also drawn on in order to clarify some of the difficult issues that arise from working with the abused patient.