We know much about how sexual abuse traumatizes children. We also know that sexual abuse perpetrators are not all cut from the same cloth. The authors, a psychiatrist and a lawyer-psychologist with many years of experience working with perpetrators, detail those factors in their character formation that help identify those who can be helped by mental health intervention and those who cannot—and must be left to the law. This work is an invaluable contribution toward the prevention of the traumatization of children!—Henri Parens, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Thomas Jefferson University; Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst (in Adult & Child) at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia. Broad in scope, this richly informative book elucidates the etiology, consequences, and current psychoanalytic understanding of the sexual abuse of children. The roles of age, gender, psychological conflict and deficits, educational and social status are all carefully considered. Issues of adolescent and adult perpetrators, including parents, are discussed with reference to child protection, recognizing that some pedophiles are untreatable. The vulnerability of the child to abuse is reviewed with empathy and insight. Avoiding simplicity, the authors synthesize complex legal issues. This book is highly recommended to all clinicians who confront the reality of child abuse.—Harold P. Blum, MD, FAPA, Training and Supervising Analyst, IPE affiliated with New York University School of medicine; former Editor, JAPA.Having for decades studied severe personality disorders and psychoses, it is exhilarating for me to recommend this much needed, superbly written, and highly valuable book. In so doing, they fill a gap in our knowledge about developmental defects, actualized unconscious fantasies, and pathological defenses in pedophiles—going light-years past the DSM-5 descriptions (which they critique). They discuss how to determine treatability, and offer a highly reasoned criticism of relevant Supreme Court decisions over the past 40 years.—Vamık D. Volkan, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, University of Virginia; Emeritus Training and Supervising Analyst, Washington Psychoanalytic Institute. This wide-ranging discourse on the dark and heinous realm of sexual abuse of children elucidates not only the forces that make adults prone to such violations, but also addresses the thorny problem of how these troubled and troubling people might be helped. A seamless blend of psychoanalytic theory, child developmental observations, criminology, descriptive psychiatry, jurisprudence, and basic human wisdom, Blackman and Dring's book offers fresh insights and truly useful strategies to understand and ameliorate this tragic and painful scenario.—Salman Akhtar, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia.
