Psychological Self-Help

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As a society, we must start early to face and correct the macho, hostile,
insensitive, "sick," ignorant sexual-sadistic urges in men and boys. Several Web sites
Feminism Page (http://www.wwwomen.com/category/femini4.html), AWARE:
Arming Women Against Rape (http://www.aware.org), and Men Can Stop Rape
(http://www.mencanstoprape.org/) if they learn to take sober responsibility for their
sexual/hostile actions. 
If you need help or are unsure about getting an exam or reporting the offense,
call The Rape/Sexual Abuse Hotline at 1-800-551-0008 (serving only certain areas)
or Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (http://www.rainn.org/) at 1-800-656-
HOPE. This latter number automatically re-routes your call the nearest local rape
crisis center or treatment/examination facilities. Very good lists of actions-to-take
(http://www.utexas.edu/student/cmhc/booklets/rape/rape.html) and 4Women.gov
Rape is a very scary and dangerous situation. It is highly emotional--you
may have many feelings and thoughts. It almost always has serious long-
term psychological and psychosomatic ramifications for the victim. Yet, sadly,
very few rape victims seek psychological help. Treatment for the victim is
usually important, even if it is years later (Koss & Harvey, 1991; Bass &
Davis, 1988, 1992). Other books can be especially helpful to rape victims:
Warshaw (1988, 1994) writes mostly about date rape, and Ledra (1986) or
Maltz (1992) address many aspects of various kinds of rape. Specific
cognitive-behavioral programs have been written, e.g. for rape survivors
(Foa, Hearst-Ikeda & Perry, 1995), to reduce the long-term emotional
trauma. Both Matsakis (2003) and Rothbaum & Foa (1999) focus on recovery
from rape. Psychological help for men who have been sexually abused in
childhood is given by Lew (1990) and Sonkin (1992). 
Web sites can lead you to many books and articles about specific rape and
abuse issues: Sexual Assault Information Page (a huge site at
http://www.rainn.org/), Sexual Assault Services (http://www.connsacs.org/)
, and International Child Abuse Network (http://www.yesican.org/). Several
kinds of offenders were mentioned above (see emotional abuse and Norcross,
et al., 2000) but I'll repeat only the Professional Exploiter
discussed in chapter 10. 
The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting
the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.
Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate... Hate
cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dealing with a stalker
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