Young Men Surviving Child Sexual Abuse

  By Andrew Durham.
  John Wiley and Sons
  ISBN 047084460
  £24.95

With this book, Durham has made an important contribution to the literature for professionals whose work may bring them into contact with survivors of abuse and with those who abuse. The book is scholarly yet accessible. It does not shy away from the fact that patriarchy has enabled sexual abuse to happen but it also provides a very practical approach for a therapeutic response to abused young men. Indeed, the first and second parts of the book provide the theoretical context and the implications for practice respectively.

But part three is key since it allows young men to speak for themselves. Their voices are faithfully reproduced, in the vernacular and their pain and bewilderment, their horror and shame, are all apparent. Durham’s succinct conclusions at the end of each chapter summarise the content and put the young men’s views into context.

The book is the result of Durham’s doctoral research and so one would expect it to be thorough and comprehensive, which it is. His own voice resonates with the experience of working with abused young men for more than 20 years and is crucial to its authenticity. For anyone who has an interest in this subject Durham’s book is essential reading.

Anne Bannister is a child psychotherapist. Her book, Creative Therapies with Traumatised Children, is due to be published in 2004.