16 research outputs found
Sexual violence, bodily pain, and trauma: a history
Psychological trauma is a favoured trope of modernity. It has become commonplace to assume that all âbad eventsâ â and particularly those which involve violence â have a pathological effect on the suffererâs psyche, as well as that of the perpetrators. This essay explores the ways victims of rape and sexual assault were understood in psychiatric, psychological, forensic, and legal texts in Britain and America from the 19th to the late 20th century. It argues that, unlike most other âbad eventsâ, which were incorporated within trauma narratives from the 1860s, the ascription of psychological trauma was only applied to rape victims a century later. Why and what were the consequences