Articles by Richard Gartner, Ph.D.

New York Times Letter to the Editor, published in print edition (March 4, 2011): The Rape of Men
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The FBI defines rape as a crime only against women. Forcible rape of men is used to humiliate and dehumanize men by making them "feminine" victims, thus reinforcing degrading stereotypes against women.

Psychology Today Blog (Feb, 2011): Talking about sexually abused boys, and the men they become: When difficult talk is healing talk
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Talking about boyhood sexual abuse and its aftermath for men can be difficult, even painful. But such talk is absolutely essential

New York Newsday Op-Ed (April 22, 2009): NY must give child sex abuse victims more time
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The prevalence, effects, and economic and social costs of childhood sexual abuse demonstrate the urgent need for an extended statute of limitations.

What About the Boys?
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Sexually abused boys are likely to face problems as adults, but the good news is that healing is possible.

Sexually Abused Men: An Online Discussion at HealthyPlace.com (2007)
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A transcript of Dr. Gartner's on-line discussion with audience members at HealthyPlace.com about male sexual abuse and the stigma surrounding it. Topics range from depression, flashback and compulsive behaviors as coping mechanisms to how being betrayed affects intimate relationships in adulthood.

Testimony of Dr. Richard Gartner before the New Jersey Senate Judiciary Subcommittee (2004)
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The text of Dr. Gartner's statement before the Senate Subcommittee on January 26th, 2004, supporting a change in New Jersey's law which would help to protect children from sexual predators in charitable organizations.

Predatory priests: Sexually abusing Fathers (2004). Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 5:31-56
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The media, the public, and the Church have spotlighted the effects of the scandals on the Church rather than the effects of priest abuse on its victims. Child sexual abuse has ominous relational implications for its victims. It often results in distrust of authority; seeing relationships in hierarchical, exploitative terms; distance and isolation; and fear of relating. Dissociation, an adaptive response to trauma, can become a characteristic, dysfunctional response to stress. Boys often have particular problems because of socialized masculine-gender norms that men are not victims and concerns about the implications of same-sex abuse for their sexual orientation.

Coming to terms with sexual abuse (2002). Psychologist-Psychoanalyst, 22:18
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The media, like the public at large, is more comfortable thinking about the effects of the scandal on the Church than about the effects of sexual abuse on boys.

Effects on boys of priest abuse (2002). Psychologist-Psychoanalyst,  22:15-17
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How abuse by priests affects boys.

Relational aftereffects in manhood of boyhood sexual abuse (1999). Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 29:319-353.
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Since 1980, there has been an outpouring of books and papers on childhood sexual abuse. The emphasis in them has nearly always been on sexually abused girls and their reactions to the abuse as women. But, as Holmes and Slap (1998) conclude, "the sexual abuse of boys is common, underreported, underrecognized, and undertreated". Approximately one in six boys experiences direct sexual contact with an adult or older child by age sixteen.

Sexual Victimization of Boys by Men (1999)
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Sexual abuse of boys by men and older boys has been misunderstood in the professional and lay literatures. Confusing same-sex victimization with homosexual orientation, many abused boys, and people they talk to about it, understand it as a sign of the victim's or the abuser's homosexuality.

Cinematic depictions of boyhood sexual victimization (1999). Gender and Psychoanalysis, 4:253-289.
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How have movies portrayed forced, incestuous, or inappropriate sexual relations with underage boys? The films I discuss demonstrate how deeply ingrained in our culture is the expectation that boys will encode early sexual behavior with women as pleasurable initiations. By contrast, sexual behavior between boys and men is portrayed as shameful in the movies, something to be hushed up or, perhaps, revenged. Together, these characterizations reinforce and perpetuate attitudes toward sexual victimization that make it difficult for boys to process and heal from traumatic experiences.

Additional Published Articles and Chapters

The Jewish men dancing inside me (2007). Chapter in The Still Small Voice, M Holzman, Ed. URJ Press.

Failed "Fathers," boys betrayed (2007). Chapter in Predatory Priests, Silenced Victims, M.G. Frawley-O'Dea and V. Goldner, Eds., Analytic Press.

Sexual victimization of boys by men: Meanings and consequences (1999). Journal of Gay and Lesbian Psychotherapy, 3:1-33.

On masculine strength, emotional detachment, and the praise of incest (1999). Gender and Psychoanalysis, 4: 307-316.

An analytic group for sexually abused men (1997), International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 47:373-383.

Considerations in the psychoanalytic treatment of men who were sexually abused as children (1997). Psychoanalytic Psychology, 14:13-41.

Managing chronic loss and grief: Contrapuntal needs of an AIDS patient and his therapist (1997). Chapter in Hope and Mortality: Psychodynamic Approaches to AIDS and HIV, M. Blechner, Ed., Analytic Press

Memories of sexual betrayal: Psychoanalytic perspectives on the debate (1997). Round Robin, Winter, 1997: 4-5, 16.

Incestuous boundary violations in families of borderline patients (1996). Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 32:73-80.

The relationship between Interpersonal Psychoanalysis and Family Therapy (1995). Chapter in Handbook of Interpersonal Psychoanalysis, M. Lionells, J. Fiscalini, C. Mann, and D. Stern, Eds., Analytic Press

The use of the one-way mirror in restructuring family boundaries (1979). Family Therapy, Gartner, R.B., Bass, A., and Wolbert, S., 6:27-37

The family life cycle: Developmental crises and their structural impact on families in a community mental health center (1978). Family Process, Gartner, R.B., Fulmer, R.H., Weinshel, M., and Goldklank, S. ,17:47-58.

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