SAT, Oct 9 \ 11.30-13.30 \ Victims of Sexual Abuse, III

116
“…AND THE WIFE SEE THAT SHE REVERENCE HER HUSBAND.”

Konstantina Papagiannopoulou, MD
Social Security Institution (IKA), Child Mental Health Center, Athens, Greece
childika@otenet.gr, smylon@otenet.gr

Two young people, two persons coming from two different paths, meet and get married. Sexual intercourse, initially a source of joy and creativity, gradually becomes an abyss of mixed feelings, pain, fear, rage, anger, shame, humiliation, and a struggle for ownership. Any attempt to control the previous traumatic experience leads to new trauma. The “debt” of one spouse towards the other becomes an obligation. The atmosphere surrounding the union of the two persons and their bodies is one of violence. Respect towards the other has become deceit. Love is a fallen angel. Each one of them repeats in his relations patterns of the past. Marriage is driven towards a dead end and after many years to the divorce. The wife, in an attempt to become sexually involved with another man, ends up in similar situations, similar dead ends.
In psychotherapy, the confusion of roles, beliefs, relations within the family of origin and their consequences up to the present begins to unravel. She tries to discover the roles played by her mother and her grandmother. She writes and rewrites the story of her life.

117
GOLDEN WREATH AND ARIADNE'S CLUE IN THE THERAPEUTIC PROCESS

Christine Kalyva, MD
Social Security Institution (IKA), Child Mental Health Center, Athens, Greece
childika@otenet.gr

According to the legend, the labyrinth of the Minoan palace was a spire. Whoever entered it left behind him/her the light and was lost in its corridors only to come face to face with the Minotaur and engage into a struggle against him. A sexually abused child or adolescent also struggles against a legendary monster, and is tormented by thoughts and feelings of humiliation, fear, guilt, love, anger, sorrow and despair. The therapist is then invited to walk along this same path. In this case both the therapist and the abused person run the risk to become trapped into the labyrinth of sexual abuse. The subject of this presentation is the therapeutic relationship that develops during therapy and the way to maximize the benefits deriving from the available therapeutic means, in order to help the child or the adolescent to find the way back to the light and to a healthy existence.

118
CO-OPERATION WITH A FATHER VICTIMIZER. THOUGHTS AND EMOTIONS OF A SPECIALIST. PRESENTATION OF A CLINICAL CASE

Lemonia Iakovou, MD, Evaggelia Foka, Social Worker
Social Security Institution (IKA), Child Mental Health Center, Athens, Greece
childika@otenet.gr

When B. was admitted for the first time by the Adolescent Therapeutic Department of I.K.A. Child Mental Health Center, she was 12 years old. Her mother, who was with her, was incapable of protecting her in any way. B. was sexually abused by her father, but she could never speak about the fact in a direct way. She had however all the symptoms of trauma, including self destructive actions. In this case report we will describe the attempt of our therapeutic team to cooperate with the father victimizer, the inability of the health system to protect and treat this child, since many public services were called to help her, but unfortunately the result was management of the case instead of therapeutic treatment.

119
HIDDEN TRAITS OF THE LABYRINTH. PRESENTATION OF CLINICAL CASES

Argyro Kounoupa, MD
Social Security Institution (IKA), Child Mental Health Center, Athens, Greece
childika@otenet.gr

Children that are sexually abused are in difficulty to talk about the event. Confused with guilt and fearful, they try to understand what happened, making an effort not to accuse anyone especially when the abuser is a family member. The child psychiatrist is in difficulty when he undertakes a diagnostic role after the intervention of the district attorney.

120
REFLECTIONS OF A CHILD PSYCHIATRIST ON SEXUAL ABUSE

Marianthi Kotea, MD

Victimizer and victim. Silence, concealment, guilt, shame. The child psychiatrist is invited to become a judge and find a fair solution. He is invited to be a therapist and heal a psychic trauma.