The book provides - for the first time in the German-speaking world - a
comprehensive scientific contribution to the reappraisal of sexualized
violence in a psychotherapy institute. The qualitative case study takes
a look at decades of abuse of power and sexualized violence by the
director of an analytical institute for children and young people. It
shows that the psychotherapists involved in this system do not live up
to central ideas and concepts of their profession: Silence, denial,
rationalization, rejection of responsibility, and ignorance of those
affected have for a long time prevented the uncovering of the acts and
sustainable forms of coming to terms with them. The life of the
institute is characterized by a dialectical tension between the
necessity of processing and the desire for undisturbed functioning. This
dynamic also proves to be analogous to the problem-solving patterns of
psychotherapeutic patients. The case points to fundamental problems in
the field of psychotherapy, which are primarily related to a structural
power imbalance and pronounced dependency relationships both in the
context of training and in the treatment setting. The findings of this
empirical study are used to derive professional and organizational
ethical considerations and - based on these - to formulate concrete
recommendations for the prevention of sexualized violence in
psychotherapy institutes.