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New York: The Haworth Press, 2001, 119 pp.
When we talk about victims of abuse we most typically think of children -- boys and girls who are physically or sexually abused by family members, acquaintances, or strangers. If we shift our attention to adult victims of abuse, we most typically think of domestic violence -- especially women who are being abused by their romantic partner. We have managed to cover three quarters of the population, with only men remaining as potential abuse victims. But what about men as victims of abuse in their adulthood? To what extent are men the victims of abuse? What sort of abuse are they the victims of? How are they affected by and how do they cope with this abuse? How should such adult male victims be intervened with? And to what extent does their masculinity color all of these questions?
These are interesting and somewhat provocative questions that deserve to be asked and answered. A recent book, The Abuse of Men: Trauma Begets Trauma, attempts to address some of those concerns. Perhaps because it is a collection of journal articles written for simultaneous publication in the Journal of Couples Therapy, it does a mixed job, raising the questions but only offering a few partial answers. Still, it is a beginning in further examining this...