Victimization: A Violation of Spirit

“We have created a culture of bogus victimology that almost daily seems to drown our moral sense – by making excuses for vicious criminality, and obscuring the real suffering that such criminality so often leaves in its wake.”

Charles Sykes
Journalist

What is the true significance of being sexually abused or “violated”? Literature on the subject is as various as victims themselves are. The effect on an individual varies as greatly as the hotstar nature of the offense and the nature of the victim. Experts on trauma admit the area still remains unclear and in need of more investigation.

There is not necessarily a “normal” reaction to sex abuse, so we must focus on the most commonly agreed on effects of abuse. We know that at its core, sex abuse is a violation of a person’s most inviolate possession, “the self”. Without too much psycho-philosophic inferences, suffice it to say that the most highly prized personal possession has been transgressed.

The “self” is commonly referred to as mind, body, and spirit. A training card at a recent workshop stated eloquently that “there is no part of life that does not contain the spirit”. As one specialist in the field stated, “It is the spirit that holds the fabric of the self together, the power to know, to love, and to will.”

In treating the effects of being sexually violated, the endeavor then is to assist the victim in restoring their “spirit”.