Turtle

Working with adult survivors of pre-verbal sexual abuse

Abstract

Lacan's model of child development is of particular value when one attempts to work with an adult client who was abused before language was sufficiently developed to become the primary, conscious framework for meaning making, i.e. pre-verbally.

Simply put, Lacan's model contains: the Real (that which we cannot know, because it exists before we have a conscious awareness. It is that which is not altered by anything else, any 'other'); the Imaginary (that which exists in the earliest relationship mother/other- but is non verbal and is non symbolised. It exists in another realm, which is kinaesthetic/sensational/emotive); and the Symbolic (which is the realm that the child enters into with the acquisition of language. In our culture, this is the realm of the patriarchy- which has specific implications for victims of pre-verbal sexual abuse).