The latest books from UniSA researchers

Where To From Here? Examining Conflict-Related and Relational Interaction Trauma

A new book, Where To From Here? Examining Conflict-Related and Relational Interaction Trauma, explores the aftermath of trauma arising from social conflict and the wounds dealt through interpersonal relations of loss, abuse and torture.

Co-edited by Associate Professor Elspeth McInnes, along with human rights legal scholar and activist Anka D Mason, the book examines how individuals and societies come to terms with traumatic injuries and disruption. Disciplinary perspectives cross the boundaries of textual analysis, sociology and psychology to offer pathways of perception and recovery. The book provides an interdisciplinary exploration; from the conflicts in Rwanda and Lebanon to the ethical challenges of journalism and trauma, loss and dementia, domestic violence, child sexual abuse, and the role of literary texts in representing conflict.

In one of the chapters, Assoc Prof McInnes argues that child sexual abuse is a contested social field where victims, either directly or indirectly affected, can face a range of risks arising from disclosure. They may fear of threats and punishment by the perpetrator, lack of language or understanding to identify what has happened to them and to understand the reactions of outsiders. Assoc Prof McInnes says child sexual abuse is alarmingly common and enormously destructive to all parties involved, yet even when victims do not reveal their experiences, it is possible to identify signs of abuse.

In the chapter Young Children’s Drawings after Sexual Abuse: Disclosure and Recovery, she examinesthe ways in which young children may indirectly disclose their experiences through their behaviour and drawings.

This book enables readers to find their own resonance with the rupture and recovery of trauma. It will be particularly relevant to those interested in the psychological implications of conflict and the abusive relational interaction on people and communities.

Published by Brill, Where To From Here? Examining Conflict-Related and Relational Interaction Trauma is available online.

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