Gerard Rodgers

Phd Title

'Childhood Sexual Abuse in the Lives of Gay Adult Males': Researching 'Defended' Participants

Abstract

A considerable body of psychological research points to men who have sex with men (MSM) with a history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) being at a statistically significant risk of becoming HIV, engage in sexual risk taking, report depressive symptoms, the use of non-prescription drugs and less responsive to psychological interventions compared to MSM without such sexual abuse histories. Based on these findings, I am proposing to engage a theoretically plural perspective exploring how individual identities are constituted psychically and socially, with neither having an essence apart from the other, e.g. intersubjectivity. In this model, individuals and groups are seen as mutually constituted in that there is a constant multi-directional flow between psychic 'states of mind' (emotions, feelings) and the social world of culture, politics and institutions. Social psychoanalytic theory says unconscious processes act as a powerful dynamic force in the construction of selfhood and identity, potentially disrupting the privileging of/and investment in rationality, reason, conscious intention and motivation in human subjectivity. The current study aims to explore the retrospective accounts of CSA as experienced by gay men against the backdrop of prevailing regulatory triads - religious, secular and medical discourses that explicitly/implicitly problematized/s gender/sexual diversities. My research question sets out to investigate the CSA experience, the introjection of societal and cultural mores and its impact on gay men's development of sexual/gender identities. The aim of the study is to present a critically qualitative non dualistic psychosocial analysis as a compliment to large scale studies reporting statistically predictive vulnerability for gay men with CSA history. The study will not theorize or make causal/correlative/deterministic inferences regarding the association of CSA and development of sexual/gender identities. The objective of the research is to enhance psychotherapeutic knowledge and practice that facilitates risk/harm reduction in a person's daily life.