Treatment Of Rape And Wrong Sexual Urges

From what I've heard, it appears that the biggest trauma of rape is that of disempowerment. The woman feels like her body has been taken from her. I have suggestions on how this trauma can be effectively overcome.

One suggestion is to take martial arts. Martial arts not only teaches the person that she can defend herself; it also addresses the trauma directly. Martial arts builds a relationship of self-mastery with one's body. The person gains power over her body and thus becomes empowered over her body – even to a greater extent than she had been before the rape.

Another suggestion is inviting God into her life. Here one is in touch with a power far greater than that of the rapist, and this power is righteous and good. God gives meaning, wisdom and a workable concept of ethics, and He is far more powerful than any man. If the trauma is that of disempowerment, then being in touch with the most powerful force in the known universe stands to go a long way toward solving that problem.

Right now, the leading approach to helping women who have been victims of such things is teaching them self-esteem and strength in themselves. That may work for some, but in any number of cases this can be a self-defeating approach. The self is not the only, nor the best, source of strength, and a person who is strong only in herself may not be actually strong. Such a person is likely to be selfish and also not to have a broad enough perspective. Whereas if a person is strong in God, she identifies with something much greater than herself, which means that she is more likely to take risks, make sacrifices and act with genuine courage.

For people who experience sexual urges that they do not want, I can think of two approaches. One is practiced by Buddhist monks. They meditate on decomposing corpses in order to do away with their sexuality. If they can do away with their whole sexuality that way, then people who experience pedophilic or otherwise unacceptable urges should be able to use this meditation to do away with these urges. Another is simply to hit yourself if you get urges of that kind. That should use classical Pavlovian reinforcement to de-condition the urge.

Now certainly I would not expect government-run centers for helping women dealing with things such as rape to preach Christian religion. That would be seen as violating the separation of church and state. However both churches and martial arts outlets can do outreach to these women and get them involved in something that works in overcoming their trauma. And that should help in solving this problem.