بازآفرینی مردسالاری: درمان درام با بازماندگان مرد از تجاوز جنسی

The topic of adult male rape has only recently begun to receive attention by researchers and clinicians. Most of the scant research that has been done since the topic was first tentatively broached in the late 1970s (Scarce, 1997, p. 12) has focused on the demographic characteristics of victims and perpetrators (Groth & Burgess, 1980 and King & Woollett, 1997; Lipscomb, Muram, Speck, & Mercer, 1992), the presenting symptomology of survivors (Goyer & Eddleman, 1984 and Rogers, 1997), the attitudes and attributions of blame by friends and professionals (Mitchell, Hirschman, & Hall, 1999; Washington, 1999), and attempts to understand both the prevalence of the crime and the causes for underreporting (Pino, 1999). There have been a few activists and cultural researchers who have endeavored to make the stories of male rape survivors known on a sociological level (McMullens, 1990; Scarce, 1997). While all of this research represents a much needed effort by a few pioneers to understand the nature and effects of this brutal crime, there has not been much offered, to date, in terms of descriptions of treatment progressions for survivors. In this paper, I will offer a review of some of the literature that has emerged about male rape and narrate a first-hand account of a drama therapy group treatment of three male veterans who were sexually assaulted while in the military. This admittedly small group may not represent the treatment needs of a majority of male survivors of sexual assault. I offer the work of this small group as an initiation of discourse towards the creation of a model of clinical work with survivors of male rape.

When I was asked, during my first drama therapy internship at the Concord Vet Center, to lead a group of men who had been sexually assaulted in the military, necessity became the mother of curiosity. With so little clinical research to guide me, I approached the creation of the group with many questions. How should I begin to predict which of the techniques and approaches to drama therapy should inform my work? What are the symptoms and issues I could expect to find among the men in my group? And what techniques of drama therapy best create the safety and containment necessary to approach the traumatic memory and address its enduring impact?