My participation in this discussion is indirect: a therapist team scapegoated and bullied me before a therapy group. However I was seduced by a couple of "authority figures" and entangled with a married neighbor who sexually harassed me. A TELL responder recommended Susan Penfold's book, which said it was the lead up the sexual abuse that did the most damage.

I definitely blamed myself for a long time. I received almost no help from therapists themselves, most of whom seem terrified of discussion about exploitative therapists. Even Keith-Spiegel's "ethics" book "Red Flags in Psychotherapy" painted a fictional sexual abuse survivors as a clueless, oversexed starlet, and Amazon reviewers (presumably interested in ethics) rebuked me when I protested the disrespect of this.

I can speculate why therapists and their defenders castigate survivors of exploitation. It reminds me of cult lieutenants defending their guru and enforcing the hierarchy. The notion of the fallible, amoral therapist upends a sense of security and order. That is one of the many myths a survivor must examine when recovering from harmful therapy.

I can't imagine the hostility that overcomes those who interject in a painful conversation to shame survivors. To me, it replays the metaphor of families that silence its members trying to discuss exploitation and violation.