Malignant trauma and the invisibility of ritual abuse

About the Course:

This presentation draws on psychoanalytic theories of malignant trauma to explain the invisibility of ritual abuse. Ritual abuse refers to the misuse of rituals in the organised sexual abuse of children. Despite expanded recognition of the varieties of child maltreatment, ritual abuse remains largely invisible outside the trauma and dissociation field as a specific form of sexual exploitation. Presenting qualitative data from interview research with ritual abuse survivors and mental health specialists, this presentation argues that the trauma of ritual abuse and its invisibility are co-constitutive. The perpetration and denial of ritual abuse occur within a relational matrix of perpetrators, victims, and bystanders structured by the presymbolic dread of vulnerability and dependency. The simultaneity of perpetration and disavowal creates the conditions for the malignancy of ritual abuse, including the invisibility of victims and the intergenerational transmission of extreme abuse. The presentation examines how the provision of care to ritual abuse survivors can become contingent on its erasure, and reflects on the role of therapists and others in interrupting the metastases of malignant trauma and crafting cultural and moral frameworks to transform the dread at the core of ritual abuse.

This course is based on the recorded webinar, Malignant trauma and the invisibility of ritual abuse created by Michael Salter, PhD in 2019.

Publication Date:

5:30pm-7:00pm EDT 10/3/2019

Course Material Author

Course Creator

Recommended For:

Counselors, marriage and family therapists, psychologists and social workers. This course is appropriate for intermediate levels of knowledge.

Course Objectives:

1. Identify the therapeutic tasks of Stage Three therapy

2. Identify the transference and counter-transference issues arising from termination of therapy

3. Encourage clients’ development of an authentic sense of self