Treating a case of religious sex cult trauma.

Abstract

A 3-year psychoanalytic treatment of a young adult male who suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder is chronicled from the beginning of treatment to the end. The patient reported that he was repeatedly sexually molested and physically tortured by both of his paternal grandparents, uncle, aunt, and several unidentified strangers as a child including occult ritualistic group molestation, childhood prostitution, and isolated acts of sexual violence. Surviving fundamentalist religious cult indoctrination and extreme unspeakable trauma, the nature of false memories, dissociation, multiplicity of the self, attachment, the therapeutic relationship, and the process of treatment are examined. Clinical Impact StatementThis article presents a psychoanalytic case conceptualization and treatment of a traumatized young adult male who had survived unspeakable horrors growing up in a fundamentalist religious cult environment. The nature of dissociation, symptomatology, and the relational parameters of therapy are discussed throughout the course of treatment. The value of a psychoanalytic approach to treating complex trauma is demonstrated.