Sexual abuse: a perversion of attachment?

Bowlby Centre, International Attachment Network and Institute of Group Analysis (A threesome workshop)

Saturday 9th December 2017

Workshop: 11:00 AM – 2:30 PM

Venue: Institute of Group Analysis, London NW3 5BY

Speaker: Arturo Ezquerro

Chair: Mark Linington, Chair of Bowlby Centre’s Executive Committee.

This event is part of the Bowlby Centre’s Clinical Forum programme, in association with the Institute of Group Analysis and the International Attachment Network. 

John Bowlby told me in supervision that his psychoanalytic and psychiatric trainings had not equipped him with enough expertise on child sexual abuse. But he joined the voices that denounced the high incidence of incest and its damaging effects on children – and he unequivocally referred to this as sexual exploitation of the children (Bowlby, 1979). He subsequently became conversant with the literature on the subject and challenged colleagues who denied that the abuse had taken place.