A Sexually and Physically Abused Child: His Inner World

Abstract

This paper describes how a sexually abused 8 yea r old boy's internal dynamics correlated with and influ enced his behavior whil e he was on an inpatient unit. T hrough play therapy and unit staff's observation , th e psych opathological seq uelae to the ab use unfolded in a very interesting way. T his process of correlating play materia l with observations of behavior on th e uni t , helped the treatment team in understanding the chi ld's inner world .