Psychosis and sexual abuse: An interpretative phenomenological analysis
Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy
Published online on March 25, 2018
Abstract
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Objectives
This study aimed to investigate the first‐person perspective of psychosis sufferers who survived childhood sexual abuse.
Methods
Interpretative phenomenological analysis was employed to explore the experiences of 7 women with a history of sexual abuse and psychosis.
Results
Analysis generated six themes: (a) degradation of self, interlinking shame, guilt, and sometimes disgust; (b) body‐self entrapment, experiencing bodily constraint and distortion; (c) a sense of being different to others, involving interpersonal problems; (d) unending struggle and depression, a pervasive sense of defeat; (e) psychotic condemnations and abuse, describing psychotic phenomena related to harm and sexual abuse; and (f) perception of links to the past, the links made from past abuse to current functioning.
Conclusion
Participants suffered extreme psychological, physical, and interpersonal difficulties past and present. Psychotic experiences reported exhibited themes of condemnation by external entities and reflected the topic of sexual abuse. Participants did not generally link psychosis to their past abusive experiences.
- Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, Volume 25, Issue 4, Page 540-549, July/August
2018.