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Child Sexual Abuse: A Cybernetic Description and its Implications for Professionals
Author(s) -
Kaye Marta,
Winefield Helen R.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.297
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1467-8438
pISSN - 0814-723X
DOI - 10.1002/j.1467-8438.1988.tb01254.x
Subject(s) - cybernetics , constructive , sexual abuse , project commissioning , dysfunctional family , psychology , child sexual abuse , publishing , phenomenon , social psychology , engineering ethics , psychotherapist , epistemology , human factors and ergonomics , poison control , medicine , law , computer science , political science , engineering , artificial intelligence , medical emergency , process (computing) , philosophy , operating system
Therapists, victims, and abusers are all dissatisfied with current services for child sexual abuse. This paper explores the utility of a new description of the phenomenon in terms of cybernetics, which allows analysis of the interactions between systems as well as within them. The systems of interest include the family, the professional helpers, and the law. Previous conceptualisations are reviewed, and applications of the cybernetic model are suggested for both treatment and prevention of the problem of child sexual abuse. Although family therapy is often cited as the optimal treatment model for this problem, clinical work with families in which sexual abuse occurs can be unsatisfying to all concerned. The pattern‐focused orientation of cybernetics suggests constructive initiatives which professionals may take at the levels both of individual families and of broader social policies.