Chapter Five: Discussions

Abstract

In this chapter, the findings presented in Chapter four will be discussed. First, the understanding of the childhood sexual abuse is illustrated with the Traumagenic model (Finkelhor and Browne's (1988); secondly, the results will be examined in relation to the previous literature on the lived life of woman who has been through sex abuse as children. Thirdly, the emerging pattern of living through sex abuse is presented. The current study in relation to Traumagenic Model: The findings of this study support existing research showing that CSA has long-term adverse effects on its victims. The participants in the study attribute both immediate and persisting consequences to the experience. Finkelhor and Browne's (1988) Four Traumagenic Dynamics Model, in particular, seems to provide a good framework for the impact they perceive. The model proposes four mechanisms by which children are traumatized through distortion of their cognitive and affective capacities, thereby leading to symptomatology and dysfunctional behavior. The four mechanisms are traumatic sexualization, betrayal, disempowerment, and stigmatization, to which specific adverse outcomes are associated. In the Indian Context, the same dynamics could be employed to understand the context in which the woman as a child went through sex abuse and relating the same to her lived life after the abuse. This study identified three contexts of abuse: i. Traumatic context: Where the abuser had power and authority over the child and forced the child into the act by threatening. Even when the child resisted, the perpetrator had his way to continue the abuse by controlling the child by adding fear and guilt into her. The perpetrators were all known to the child, both family and close friends.