Letter: Child abuse has an ancient history

Sir: I want to congratulate Bryan Appleyard for his willingness to confront the horrific subject of the ritual abuse of children in his article 'Who the devil shall we blame?' (27 April).

Mr Appleyard has called into question my research on the history of child abuse in Western civilisation, and he doubts whether most children born before the 20th century suffered from marked forms of abuse. The research of the several hundred historians and mental health professionals, affiliated to the Institute for Psychohistory, has unearthed a wealth of primary archival and archaeological data which suggests that in previous centuries the physical, sexual and emotional abuse of infants and young children proliferated in all cultures.

We forget that in ancient Greece, for example, young boys suffered routine sexual molestation by older men. Today we would refer to this as child sexual abuse or male rape, whereas in former times this practice would have been regarded as a type of educational instruction. We know that little girls suffered abuse as well, and we can still refer to several ancient medical tracts which speak about the difficulty of locating the intact hymen in young maidens, presumably because the hymen had already been torn in so many cases. Very little abuse was recognised as such at the time. It may shock readers to realise that the frequently used term 'child abuse' only began to appear in the medical literature during the early Sixties; before this time, professionals had no concept other than 'stern discipline' to conceptualise the routine abuse of children.

The history of childhood can best be described as nightmarish. Once we can bear to read the clinical, medical, historical and archaeological reports of ancient child abuse, we will find ourselves in a much better position to recognise the various forms of cruelty that threaten children today.

Yours faithfully,

BRETT KAHR

Lecturer in Psychotherapy

Regent's College,

London, NW1