Bruno Bettelheim as abuser, and Bill Cosby?

Post Reply New Topic

What would you do if you were one of the directors of the school and you found that that two separate female students had reported the same pattern of behavior? I hope that you would take it very seriously. Even one report should be taken seriously.

And I hope you would have colleagues whose strength you could call upon, so that you would not have to do all of this alone. And I think in some form or fashion the solution would have to be, suspend the guy pending investigation, and most importantly, protect the people you are responsible for so this guy is not given any further opportunities to abuse.

Now, this case is a little different because you're trusting one biographer. And, although he may try to be intellectually honest, he's neither neutral nor pretending to be.

==================

And please notice the above emphasis on two separate reports, and this might be one more reason why any any particular victim is reluctant to come forward.

There is more than one report regarding Bill Cosby and it sure looks like he's a serial abuser. And it's not just members of the general public presenting themselves. These are reports from a much smaller subset of people who have worked with Cosby. And the courtroom question of what you'd do if on a jury is only one question. There's also the question of what you might do as a parent or brother or sister to inform and protect a member of your family.

Victims of sexual abuse usually do not report it. That's the norm. And I ask you to use the best of Christian and Buddhist compassion, or any other philosophy you're familiar with and sometimes call upon, to take a deep breath and try to understand why.

So, a child is sexually abused and people think, Oh, if only they had reported it. No, usually, the child has perceived correctly. Usually, the child is correct in perceiving that things will go from bad to worse if they do report it.

And most people in general stay in bad situations, both men and women. This, too, is the norm. Years ago I read a study regarding whether a woman left an abusive husband or whether she stayed, and a large determining factor was whether or not she had a job. So, it might be idealistic to say we should be about the business of building a world where people feel more comfortable coming forward. Although that's perhaps exactly what we should be doing.

Regardless of whether Cosby's innocent or not, we know people of tremendous clout and esteem have gotten away with abuse over long periods of time. In most cases, how does this happen without people knowing or suspecting too much? What happens to Cosby hardly affects any of us. What can apply to many of us is, are there people in positions of power in our lives who become considered above reproach?


http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainmen ... -1.2020464

Due to the sensitive nature of accusations I wish more of the public would be loath to judge why some of these women would speak out over Cosby a long time after the fact, and more questioning of someone like Frank Scotti.

I really don't know how it can be made easier for victims to come forward ... over what may be a long process.

I heard the following author speak on C-span's "Book TV"

Charles M. Blow, Fire Shut Up In My Bones: A Memoir, and the book includes when he was sexually abused as a child.

He said abuse is a violation of trust and a violation of boundaries, which is difficult enough and serious enough.

But add to this, often because of misogyny or homophobia, the idea that the child is ruined goods, often put forward by the very people who should be supporting the child, then it becomes even a more difficult issue to move forward from.

He also said a lot of abuse is perpetuated from one child to another, and unless we face that honestly, we're not going to have much chance of responding to the problem in a constructive way.

One idea I have is that we need a criminal justice system which does something other than all-or-nothing. Maybe it needs a way to respond to things in a medium way which is still effective. And maybe we need additional strengths to draw upon other than just criminal justice.

The following webpage includes Charles' talk.

http://www.booktv.org/Watch/16445/2014+ ... y+Two.aspx

See 5:03:25 for the beginning of his talk,

and 5:21:50 for when he talks about sexual abuse.

And yes, this is five hours into the posted video from the Miami Book Fair.

I read that in Scotland, they have a third category, "not proven guilty" which is sorta like a probationary state.