The Psychology of Rape?

Contact your local domestic violence/sexual assault crisis center. They have brochures on the subject and also can recommend books to read. You may also be able to interview one of the counselor's.

Hope this helps.
Lavern (who volunteered at a local crisis center many years ago)

I think it's the stock answer of: it depends. It depends on the woman, her personality, the circumstances of the rape, how she's dealt with it since (suppressed the memory of it or had counselling), her age at the time (was she a child, a teenager, or a woman?).

How a woman enters into a new relationship post-rape says a lot about her current psychological state (her character).

'Faces of Evil' by Lois Gibsen Linky

She's a forensic artist...it's a tale of her life. She was raped, and has done a lot of thinking about it since. That's what has made her a first class forensic artist...because she understands the trauma, the state of mind of victims who are brought in to describe the perp. Very good material there if you want to try and get a handle on the emotions, thought processes experienced by a rape victim.

I scooted this thread over to the Story Research forum. It might get some further help from there.

Everyone is different. In extreme cases, some women suffer post traumatic panic attacks during attempts at intimacy. It would not be unusual for it to affect her intimate relationships negatively, but for some few, they are able to suppress it or even ignore it. I heard one speaker try to connect lesbianism and being a dominatrix with a history of rape. I'm sure for some that might be the case, but I doubt it's the rule. There's so much variation that you can do pretty much what you want with your story.

I hate to parrot everyone else here, but when they are right...It all depends on the person.

I have to break for dinner. Bad timing. I will be back with some links/resources that may help.

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Hopefully some of this information will help.

http://www.rainn.org/get-information/index.html - Clinical information regarding the effects of rape

http://rapedlostalone2.blogspot.com/ - A personal blog from a rape survivor. I have read through a bit of it, it is pretty intense, but it will definitely give you a good idea of what one woman went through during the healing process.

http://www.survivingtothriving.org/mainpage - Just has some good information, resources, and links.

http://www.healthyplace.com/communities/Abuse/lisk/index.html - More personal accounts.

Part of what you will need to decide is how far your character has come in her healing process. Is this her first date after the rape? How long has it been since the rape? Although length in time does not always depict a "stage" in the healing process, it does affect where your character's mind would be. If it has been quite a while since the rape, your character my feel that she should damn well be ready to date, even if she isn't. Which, unfortunately, cycles back to feeling guilt about "not being over it".

A few actions that the person your character is dating may perform that may throw your character "off".

• Any action that can be interpreted as being forceful. - Grabbing your character, holding on to her arms too long, etc.
• Any action that resembles actions performed in the rape. - Say the woman's attacker had their hands around her throat during the attack, the woman may have a hard time with her now date brushing their hands over her neck, especially during an intimate moment.
• Comments that can be construed as derogatory towards women, or construed as placing blame on a woman for being attacked.

I know someone who was attacked and nearly raped. Issues she had to deal with afterwards were:

1) Blaming herself. It sounds stupid, but it's like when you get into an accident and you keep going over it in your mind, wondering if you had just done ONE LITTLE THING differently, if you could have avoided the situation.

2) Distrust and fear of men in general, often manifested as anger towards men. For a while she was very pro-woman-power and made a lot of sarcastic comments about men. She didn't even want to think about a relationship for a while.

3) Fear of being alone, sleeping alone, being in the dark, being alone in the dark outside... you get the point.

Search terminology is important here.

You want to look for "rape SURVIVOR" psychology. Some examples from googling those three words...

http://www.voices-action.org/

http://abyss2hope.blogspot.com/2007/09/carnival-against-sexual-violence-30.html

http://www.psychforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=12682

http://www.welcometobarbados.org/intro.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=aH...BjDur&sig=VpXF4_Uy-xoNAVXmfAQtFqu_oNA#PPP1,M1

Hope that helps.

I'm an NRA pistol instructor. Over the last ten years I've taught quite a few women to shoot. Two, I discovered, had been raped. Although it's hard to generalize from two victims, they seemed to follow the general trend of people who've survived attacks. If the individuals fought back to the best of their ability they eventually overcome the trauma with a much better view of themselves. They're never the same, no one is, but they will go on to face life again. The blame for them falls on their attackers. Those who submit without a struggle seem to have the most serious and long lasting physchological side effects. These are the ones who blame themselves, their self image shattered. The two individuals I encountered went down fighting and were determined to make sure it never happened again. They were angry. They had a right to be. But they weren't reclusive, didn't blame themselves and, even though they were careful, they didn't hate all men. They wanted the power to control their lives again, power that had been taken from them, and they got it.