Demons Hidden Within
Lifelong Impact of Child Sexual Abuse
Published on 17. June 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
132 pages
978-1-63821-512-7 (ISBN)
Description
This is Susan Montgomery's true story of trauma, abuse, an abduction, an affair, and suicide. It is also a love story. When eleven she suffered sexual abuse at the hands of her father. With virtually no resources available, she buried the memory, which seemed moderately successful in that she finished college, married her childhood sweetheart, and had three wonderful children. But as a young adult, her behavior began exhibiting self-destructive tendencies, the first being a life-threatening loss of weight. If queried, she would have been unable to explain this or other aberrant behavior. Devastated by the suicide of her 16-year-old son, she sought psychotherapy, where she began to better understand the underpinnings of her bizarre behavior. This quest became the basis of Demons Hidden Within. Here, over 80 references from the psychological literature clearly link her strange behavior to the underlying, but unrecognized effects of the sexual abuse.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 226 mm
Width: 147 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
227 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-63821-512-7 (9781638215127)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Susan Montgomery was raised in an upper-middle-class family in upstate New York. When she was eleven, her father sexually abused her. With essentially no resources available, she tried to bury the memory. On the surface, her life seemed under control in that she married her childhood boyfriend, completed college, and had three children. However, upon closer examination, her behavior had begun to deteriorate in early adulthood when she undertook the seemingly inexplicable action of severely restricting her eating until she was emaciated. At the time--and throughout much of her adult life--she could give no reason for this and other significant displays of self-destructive, aberrant behavior. Her son's suicide in 1985 devastated her, forcing her to seek help from a psychotherapist. This event, along with her detailed analysis of the psychology literature, enabled her to link her bizarre behavior to the underlying, unrecognized effects of the sexual abuse experienced decades earlier.