Resurrection After Rape Community Group
Discussion, question-and-answer, general social support, and journal processing for progress-oriented rape survivors. No crisis, no damaging or triggering conflicts--this is for individuals who want to contribute to collective, cooperative action toward the goal of making actual PROGRESS through rape trauma. Much of this work is based on the book "Resurrection After...
I don't want to say too much just yet, but I'm working through some concepts that might add up to a new method of designing rape trauma treatment plants. I have never seen this referred to in ANY literature, but I found one book that came close 20 years ago without realizing the significance of it.
Essentially, working with over 500 rape victims in counseling, both female and male, have caused some intriguing patterns to become apparent. We all know that "no rape is exactly like another rape" and that "each person's trauma is unique." But has anyone ever followed those streams back to their sources, and considered WHY they are each different? What factors combine to create the unique manifestation of rape trauma in one person, and why is it different than the traumatic symptoms of another? It is REALLY purely random, or could there be some coded insights we've been missing?
See, I think that the reason rape trauma seems unique is that we focus on one narrative at a time, which is like looking at a single groove of a fingerprint under an electron microscope. Pull back and include the experiences of a few more survivors, and then more, and gradually you see "hey, this isn't just a bunch of random data, these are starting to form a recognizable pattern!" As more and more data is brought into view, we begin to see the whole fingerprint and not just a single groove.
I've been doing a lot of writing late at nights, and suddenly something really hit me: these aren't just a bunch of isolated stories; there are repeating clues hidden in them about each person's traumatic experiences! Taken as a group, these 500+ stories form a "rape fingerprint"--an ordered pattern of information that suggests a very complex cause-and-effect system.
What I'm beginning to notice is that the symptoms of rape trauma, which seem unique and unrelated to the symptoms felt by another rape victim, actually point back to the details of the trauma itself. In other words, I am beginning to suspect that the traumatic symptoms don't point to the victim's traits, but to the rapist's! Each rapist's characteristics infuse a set of patterned symptoms to their victim, and the traumas endured by the victim--even years later--are "fingerprints" that help us understand more about the dynamics of the assault itself, and the mannerisms of the perpetrator.
This is remarkable for several reasons. First, it would help therapists finally begin to design very specific, very accurate treatment plans for each survivor, rather than the typical "client will use cognitive-behavioral therapy to process her trauma," blah blah blah. By comparing the nature of the perpetrator and assault, the therapist can custom-develop a treatment plan that is very specific and very competent for the unique survivor. Once we know the relationship between certain "types" of rape/rapist and the resulting traumatic symptoms, we can begin to develop diverse treatment training curricula, and FINALLY rape trauma therapy will become a specialized approach rather than a generalist effort.
Second, there may be legal uses for this. If my theory holds water, it might help substantiate a rape allegation if the survivor's symptomology can be matched by expert witnesses to her description of the assault and perpetrator. It would give one additional layer of congruence between her allegation and the psychological evidence.
Third, it might help alleviate a LOT of victim self-blame. If my theory is accurate, then it follows that a victim's symptoms are NOT, then, the result of her personal weakness, unworthiness, etc. Rather, they are the psychological residue of the perpetrator's traits, not hers. And since those can be expunged from her with better treatments, she can finally begin to understand that her trauma symptoms are neither permanent, nor evidence of her own flawed traits.
This is going to take a lot of work and research. My theory is much more elaborate than I have let on here, but if I've stumbled onto what I think this signifies, this could be a truly amazing proposal about rape trauma treatments. I want to explore this a lot further.
Essentially, working with over 500 rape victims in counseling, both female and male, have caused some intriguing patterns to become apparent. We all know that "no rape is exactly like another rape" and that "each person's trauma is unique." But has anyone ever followed those streams back to their sources, and considered WHY they are each different? What factors combine to create the unique manifestation of rape trauma in one person, and why is it different than the traumatic symptoms of another? It is REALLY purely random, or could there be some coded insights we've been missing?
See, I think that the reason rape trauma seems unique is that we focus on one narrative at a time, which is like looking at a single groove of a fingerprint under an electron microscope. Pull back and include the experiences of a few more survivors, and then more, and gradually you see "hey, this isn't just a bunch of random data, these are starting to form a recognizable pattern!" As more and more data is brought into view, we begin to see the whole fingerprint and not just a single groove.
I've been doing a lot of writing late at nights, and suddenly something really hit me: these aren't just a bunch of isolated stories; there are repeating clues hidden in them about each person's traumatic experiences! Taken as a group, these 500+ stories form a "rape fingerprint"--an ordered pattern of information that suggests a very complex cause-and-effect system.
What I'm beginning to notice is that the symptoms of rape trauma, which seem unique and unrelated to the symptoms felt by another rape victim, actually point back to the details of the trauma itself. In other words, I am beginning to suspect that the traumatic symptoms don't point to the victim's traits, but to the rapist's! Each rapist's characteristics infuse a set of patterned symptoms to their victim, and the traumas endured by the victim--even years later--are "fingerprints" that help us understand more about the dynamics of the assault itself, and the mannerisms of the perpetrator.
This is remarkable for several reasons. First, it would help therapists finally begin to design very specific, very accurate treatment plans for each survivor, rather than the typical "client will use cognitive-behavioral therapy to process her trauma," blah blah blah. By comparing the nature of the perpetrator and assault, the therapist can custom-develop a treatment plan that is very specific and very competent for the unique survivor. Once we know the relationship between certain "types" of rape/rapist and the resulting traumatic symptoms, we can begin to develop diverse treatment training curricula, and FINALLY rape trauma therapy will become a specialized approach rather than a generalist effort.
Second, there may be legal uses for this. If my theory holds water, it might help substantiate a rape allegation if the survivor's symptomology can be matched by expert witnesses to her description of the assault and perpetrator. It would give one additional layer of congruence between her allegation and the psychological evidence.
Third, it might help alleviate a LOT of victim self-blame. If my theory is accurate, then it follows that a victim's symptoms are NOT, then, the result of her personal weakness, unworthiness, etc. Rather, they are the psychological residue of the perpetrator's traits, not hers. And since those can be expunged from her with better treatments, she can finally begin to understand that her trauma symptoms are neither permanent, nor evidence of her own flawed traits.
This is going to take a lot of work and research. My theory is much more elaborate than I have let on here, but if I've stumbled onto what I think this signifies, this could be a truly amazing proposal about rape trauma treatments. I want to explore this a lot further.
Again, sounds interesting. Would like to understand it better.
I can't give too many details just yet, but what I am trying (clumsily) to say is that certain types of perpetrators cause certain clusters of trauma symptoms but not others. So the symptoms that a survivor experiences anyway don't mean she's carrying him around even more, it means that what she's feeling is NOT crazy, sick, or twisted! It's the reverse: her symptoms are very accurate, insightful codes that help us decipher more data about the original trauma, thus helping us treat it far better and with less "I'm just this way 'cause I'm messed up" kinds of feelings along the way.
Also, I wonder if you have a stuck point of self blame if this will be a harder concept to understand. I always say I am ok with any self blame issues, but every now and then something comes up, (like above) that makes me wonder. Although your explanation makes perfect sense, it still leaves that "yucky" feeling with me and what you explained was that this theory will help alleviate those self blaming projections. Just curious.
Sorry if I got this going when you probably didn't intend on starting this, I just found this interesting!
I am going to have to think on this some more!
Having said that I do believe that when I was working with students with emotional and behavioural issues by watching there current behave sometimes (but not always) it was possible to predict with some acuracy what experiences they had been through when growing up but I would always look for some other evidence to confirm that.
However I do believe that we do carry a part of the rapist around in our self blame and guilt as our self blame and guilt is really about his actions and not ours. And certainly in the early stages of recovery (and still now to a certain extent) I was desperate to understand the rapist more and why they acted they ay they did and if i could have known that i think it would have helped me. But when i'm on here i don't think that my symptoms are more similar to those whos rapes were similar to mine and different from those with different experiences. It seems to me that we all have lots of symtoms in common?
I may have got the complete wrong end of the stick here and am very interested in what you have come up with when you feel more able to share more
I may have gone off on a complete tangent here but it is an area I find interesting, I always wanted to be a spy when I was growing up!
I wonder if you have also considered another facet of this -- a friend here and I had discussed how our rape trauma effected us as it was attached to our up-bringing. Like, I have always mentioned having no one to tell because of my horrid family life. She mentioned she didn't tell either...and she had a wonderful up-bringing, soooo, what't the connection? Just a thought...maybe a chapter in another book...:)
Now, what I am proposing is that this realization means a lot more than "um, yeah." It means we can work backward from the type of assault and perpetrator the survivor experienced to produce FAR more effective treatment plans, and FAR more effective stuck point work.
Just to play devil's advocate for a minute - would it be more accurate to talk about trauma symptoms being related to the individual circumstances of the attack itself? Which would naturally be related to the perpetrator's personality traits but not exactly the same thing.
Personally, I still think that a lot of my own difficulties after the rape were more about my own past and upbringing, the bad coping strategies that I'd learned while growing up.
Yes certain triggers are about the rapist - for example a certain body spray will still make me think "ugh" or the smell and taste of cider.
This idea could produce some very useful indicators in *some* cases. I'd just be a little bit uneasy about it becoming some new 'fad' theory that gets applied in a too sweeping way - I'm sure you wouldn't want that either.
Interesting, I think it's already fairly well documented that different 'profiles' of rapists tend to carry out different types of attacks. But there seems to be very little information about whether this also means a different pattern of trauma symptoms for the victim.
I know in my own case, finding any useful information specific to partner rape has been very frustrating, never mind how to re-build trust in future relationships.
I have to admit, you lost me a little bit when you mentioned the rapists characteristics somehow affecting the victim. I could just see some rather harmful new popular folklore growing up out of that idea.
But to look at patterns connected with the personality profile of different rapists, and the different circumstances under which they carry out their attacks, yes I do think that could be extremely helpful.
Cool Matt!! Keep us updated as you can!