Important Note for Survivors Anyone in litigation or contemplating litigation should consult counsel before reading any self-help books, medical treatises or scientific books relating to the issues of sexual abuse, psychological damage or recovered memory.

Graphic courtesy Microsoft Clip Gallery Live

   Victims Law 

The Book Shelf

The Courage to Heal : A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse -- Ellen Bass, Laura Davis (Contributor). The classic and definitive self-help guide for women survivors of sexual abuse, The Courage To Heal is a tool for recovery that works. This is also the book often cited by those who challenge the credibility of incest survivors. . . This is a comprehensive, supportive, carefully worded and often passionate book, as helpful for those who are the partners, friends or family of survivors, as for survivors themselves.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. Published by Bantam Books (New York) in 1991. ISBN 0553279378. This first-person memoir by poet Maya Angelou (whose Inaugural Poem was read at the 1992 U.S. Presidential Inauguration) includes an account of the child abuse she experienced while growing up.  This book is also available, in edited form, as an audiotape published by Random House (Audio; New York) in 1996.  ISBN 0394553691

After Silence: Rape and My Journey Back . By Nancy Venable Raine. New York: Crown Publishers.  "[A] blameless and shameless modern narrative about the meaning of rape . . . . [A] book that dignifies the human spirit. It should be read by everyone." New York Times Book Review. First Chapter: 'After Silence'

Recovered Memories of Abuse: Assessment, Therapy, Forensics. By Kenneth Pope, Ph.D., and Laura Brown, Ph.D. Published by the American Psychological Association (Washington, DC) in 1996. ISBN 1-55798-395-X. This book examines the scientific, clinical, and legal aspects of recovered memories of abuse. 

Trauma and Recovery by Judith Herman, M.D. Published by Basic Books (New York) in 1992 ISBN 0-465-08765-5. This book discusses child sex abuse and other traumatic events in historic context, examining the personal, social, and political responses to these events.

Memory, Trauma Treatment, and the Law. Daniel Brown, Alan W. Scheflin and D. Corydon Hammond, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, London, 1998, 737 pages. Book review by Atty. Helen L. McGonigle. A comprehensive review of the literature and research on trauma, memory, post-traumatic stress, dissociative amnesia, hypnosis and related legal cases.Received the American Psychiatric Association's 1998 Manfred S. Guttmacher Award as the most outstanding publication in forensic psychiatry.