The Language of Sexual Abuse: An Exploratory Lexical Analysis

We sought to determine whether the psychological effects of sexual abuse systematically affect the language of abuse survivors. To accomplish this, we used a computerized lexical analysis system to compare the Rorschach responses of 30 female psychiatric inpatient abuse survivors with those of a mat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of trauma & dissociation 2000-09, Vol.1 (3), p.29-42
Main Authors: Rosenberg, Stanley D., Hulsey, Timothy L., Rosenberg, Harriet J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Child
child abuse
content analysis
lexical analysis
Medical sciences
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Rorschach
Sex abuse
Victimology
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Summary:We sought to determine whether the psychological effects of sexual abuse systematically affect the language of abuse survivors. To accomplish this, we used a computerized lexical analysis system to compare the Rorschach responses of 30 female psychiatric inpatient abuse survivors with those of a matched group of female psychiatric inpatients with no abuse history. We then replicated the results in a holdout sample of 20 additional female inpatients. Our findings suggest that childhood sexual abuse has enduring and identifiable effects on the language of abuse survivors.
ISSN:1529-9732
1529-9740
DOI:10.1300/J229v01n03_03