Articles

Following is a partial list of Dr. Richard Gartner’s written articles, chapters, and papers. Many listings include links to the articles themselves.

Dissociation and Counterdissociation: Nuanced and Binary Perceptions of Good and Evil (2018).  Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 54(1):122-138.
Dissociation can be adaptive in the moment of trauma.  Chronic dissociation is usually maladaptive and can result in black and white, binary thinking.  During psychotherapy dissociation can be communicated to the therapist, who may react by developing similar counterdissociative reactions to the traumatic material.  These can also have adaptive and maladaptive aspects. Both dissociation and counterdissociation may result in binary thinking, interfering with nuanced approaches to the traumatic material.

Altered (Self) States: A Meditation on “Exploring Dissociation and Dissociative Identity Disorder” (2015).
Psychoanalytic Perspectives, 12:1, 84-86 In a commentary on a roundtable discussion of dissociative identity disorder, Dr. Gartner tracks his own countertraumatic and counterresilient reactions to treating a deeply traumatized man.

Trauma and countertrauma, resilience and counterresilience (2014). Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 50:609 – 626
Treating traumatized patients famously takes its toll on the treating therapist. Drawing from Dr. Gartner’s experiences working with sexually abused men over almost three decades, he describes his own countertraumatic reactions to engaging intimately with patients’ trauma experiences.

Testimony of Dr. Richard Gartner before the New York State Assembly Subcommittee on Codes regarding New York State Statute of Limitations for Childhood Sexual Abuse (2013).
The text of Dr. Gartner’s statement before the Assembly Subcommittee on March 8, 2013, supporting a change in New York’s statute of limitations law that would eliminate the statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse and allow a one-year window where victims whose statute of limitations has run out under the old law could charge their abusers.
Watch the video of the testimony or read the statement.

A Troubled Silence New York Times Op Ed Column, June 8, 2012, Print edition, P. A27:
Young adults, particularly men, who suffer the aftereffects of abuse are rarely in an emotional state to bring charges. Given what we now know about why it takes victims so long to come forward, the law needs to be changed.

MaleSurvivor Urges Brooklyn DA Hynes, Ultra-Orthodox Community to Protect Survivors of Abuse, MaleSurvivor Public Statement, May 21 2012
DA Hynes showed poor judgment when he withheld names of alleged abusers. He claims he was protecting victims from intimidation and harassment, but the effect was to protect abusers and their families.

MaleSurvivor Responds to Reports that in 1998 Sandusky Labelled “Likely Pedophile.”MaleSurvivor Public Statement, March 28, 2012
The decision not to pursue prosecution of Sandusky then was a tragic and all too common mistake that led to more children being harmed over the course of the next 10 years.

MaleSurvivor Calls on the Boy Scouts of America to Publicly Acknowledge the Mistakes of Its Past and Commit to Establishing Clear Standards for Reporting Sexual Assault, MaleSurvivor Public Statement, Feb 27 2012
When a scoutmaster or older scout abuses a boy, it is a betrayal at a most profound level. MaleSurvivor calls on the Boy Scouts of America to publicly acknowledge the mistakes of its past practices and commit to establishing clear standards for reporting accusations of abuse to the proper authorities.

Abuse victims need time to seek justice: Syracuse case highlights shortcomings in law. NY Daily News Op Ed column, print edition, December 18 2011.
The impact of childhood sexual abuse has no statute of limitations. Why is the statute of limitations for prosecuting abusers in New York so short? The Syracuse case highlights shortcomings in law: Abuse victims need time to seek justice and a 5-year limit is way too short.

Caring For Survivors of Boyhood Sexual Abuse Is The Next Step In The Penn State Case. Article on Forbes.com, Nov 18, 2011.
What might prove the silver lining in the dark Penn State cloud is the possibility that — due to some new found openness — we will finally value children more highly than the needs of institutions, However difficult that may be, only then will we truly be addressing the nightmares of childhood sexual trauma.

New York Times Letter to the Editor, published in print edition (March 4, 2011): The Rape of Men
Read this article or download it (pdf)
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.

Stepping out from the shadows: Senator Brown speaks about childhood sexual abuse. Psychology Today’s Psychoanalysis 3.0 blog, selected by PT editors as Essential Reads in Child Development, Feb 20 2011.
When Senator Scott Brown came forward to reveal his history of boyhood sexual abuse, he joined a group of prominent men who have bravely told the world about their childhood experiences of sexual molestation, assault, and/or abuse. I hope that Senator Brown’s disclosure, like those of the others, will empower other men and boys to disclose their own histories.

Psychology Today Blog (Feb, 2011): Talking about sexually abused boys, and the men they become: When difficult talk is healing talk
Read this article or download it (pdf)
Talking about boyhood sexual abuse and its aftermath for men can be difficult, even painful. But such talk is absolutely essential.
Selected by PT editors as an Essential Read in Child Development.

New York Newsday Op-Ed (April 22, 2009): NY must give child sex abuse victims more time
Read this article or download it (pdf)
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? (November 2, 2005)
Read this article
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)
Read this transcript
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)
Read this article or download it (pdf)
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
Read this article or download it (pdf)
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
Read this article or download it (pdf)
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
Read this article or  download it (pdf)
How abuse by priests affects boys.

Relational aftereffects in manhood of boyhood sexual abuse (1999). Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 29:319-353.
Read this article or download it (pdf)
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)
Read this article or download it (pdf)
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.
Read this article
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.

Click here to read more articles and interviews with Dr. Gartner in the popular media.