DOCSLIB.ORG

The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse: a Qualitative Analysis of Healthy `Couples’ Perceptions

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse: a Qualitative Analysis of Healthy `Couples’ Perceptions Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Dissertations Graduate College 8-2015 The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Qualitative Analysis of Healthy `Couples’ Perceptions Brian C. Doane Western Michigan University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations Part of the Child Psychology Commons, Developmental Psychology Commons, and the Social Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Doane, Brian C., "The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Qualitative Analysis of Healthy `Couples’ Perceptions" (2015). Dissertations. 737. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations/737 This Dissertation-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE IMPACT OF CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE: A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF HEALTHY COUPLES’ PERCEPTIONS by Brian C. Doane A dissertation submitted to the Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology Western Michigan University August 2015 Doctoral Committee: Alan J. Hovestadt, Ed.D. Chair Gary H. Bischof, Ph.D. C. Dennis Simpson, Ph.D. THE IMPACT OF CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE: A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF HEALTHY COUPLES’ PERCEPTIONS Brian C. Doane, Ph.D. Western Michigan University, 2015 Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is a problem affecting millions of individuals, with a prevalence rate of 28% to 30% for women (Cobia, Sobansky, & Ingram, 2004) and 14% for men (Breire & Elliott, 2003). Because of the psychological trauma associated with CSA and the potential impact on the survivor’s sexuality, a couple’s relationship satisfaction may be reduced and survivors may experience difficulty in maintaining healthy intimate relationships. How CSA impacts an individual has been studied extensively, but its effect on committed couple relationships has received much less attention in the literature. Additionally, very few studies have incorporated the non- abused partner’s perspective in the relationship and no current research has been reported on healthy couples with a history of CSA. The following is a qualitative research study exploring how eight couples reporting average to above average dyadic functioning and a history of CSA with one partner, show resiliency in overriding the potential negative impacts of CSA on their relationship. The experiences of healthy couples were studied through a phenomenological approach, gathering data from both partners using dyadic interviews in a semi-structured format. The major findings in this study include the following themes: (a) the impact of childhood sexual abuse on intimate relationships; (b) developing and sustaining trust; (c) developing and sustaining communication/working through conflict; (d) developing and sustaining sexual intimacy; and (e) overcoming the impact of CSA. Discussion of the findings includes comparison to existing research on CSA and couple functioning, suggested future research, clinical implications including how psychotherapists could improve therapy with couples in which one member experienced CSA, and limitations of the study. © 2015 Brian C. Doane ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There is an old proverb that states, “It takes a village to raise a child.” In this case, it took a village to complete a dissertation. There are several people who I would like to thank for their support and encouragement throughout this research. I am so proud of this work but would never have finished without them. This research could not have even begun without my committee chair, Dr. Alan Hovestadt. His insight into couple dynamics, methodologies, passion for research, and genuine interest in my professional growth provided the foundation for everything in the following pages. Beyond this research, he has been a constant mentor as I’ve grown into a counseling psychologist. He is my committee chair but will always be a dear friend and colleague. I would like to thank my committee members Drs. Gary Bischof and Dennis Simpson. Without Dr. Bischof’s words of encouragement years ago, I never would have attempted to earn a doctorate, let alone begin this line of research. He taught me couple’s therapy, supervised my first therapy with a couple, and guided me in this research with couples. Dr. Simpson has been an unwavering source of support for me. He has provided insight into the logistics of this research, often in areas that were unforeseen. I also need to thank research assistant Theresa Nutten. Theresa shares a passion for couples work and a growing interest in the effects of childhood sexual abuse. She combed over transcripts, hundreds and hundreds of codes, and spent hours with me on the ii Acknowledgements—Continued phone while we hashed out the results. Theresa worked tirelessly with only the incentive of gaining knowledge in the field. She truly cares about others and the profession. My own family has been a wonderful support system through this process. Both of my parents were eager with words of encouragement and always had an interest in the process. During the small victories along the way, it has always been heartwarming to hear my parents say things like, “I’m going to need to sew the buttons back on my shirt because my chest is just filled with so much pride.” My brother Jon and his wife Andi have also shared in providing support. Andi with her kind words and Jon with his own dissertation work providing a little competition to push me further. Jon- Although you finished first, I’m happy to report that a Doane has finally created a piece of research worth reading. And most of all, I want to thank my wife Morgan. Standing by someone’s side during this process is often in the shadows, and the effort involved, while equally as intense, can go unnoticed. She has been all things in this process, caretaker, accountability partner, editor, and my rock. Beyond those qualities, she was willing to share our story of overcoming her abuse which was and continues to be so brave. This research is about how survivors and partners make it in relationships in an effort to help others. This work is for them but it was about us. I couldn’t have done this without you. I am honored to be your husband and partner. Brian C. Doane iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................... ii LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................. ix CHAPTER I. THE PROBLEM AND ITS UNDERYLING FRAMEWORK ................ 1 Overview of the Study Topic ............................................................. 1 Background and Key Research Findings .................................. 1 Focus of the Study ............................................................................. 3 Practical Problem ...................................................................... 3 Researchable Problem............................................................... 5 The Purpose .............................................................................. 6 Research Questions ................................................................... 6 Significance of the Study .......................................................... 7 Definition of Terms ........................................................................... 8 Childhood Sexual Abuse .......................................................... 8 Couples with a History of CSA ................................................ 8 Family of Origin ....................................................................... 8 Healthy Couple ......................................................................... 9 Partner ....................................................................................... 9 Survivor .................................................................................... 9 II. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE .......................................................... 10 Introduction ........................................................................................ 10 iv Table of Contents--Continued CHAPTER Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on the Individual ....................... 11 Risk of Psychopathology .......................................................... 11 Risk of Substance Abuse .......................................................... 15 Health Risks .............................................................................. 15 Work Outcomes ........................................................................ 17 Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on the Couple............................ 18 Decrease in Relationship Satisfaction....................................... 18 Relationship Stability ................................................................ 20 Problems with Trust .................................................................. 21 Problems with Sexual Intimacy ................................................ 22 Problems with Communication ................................................ 24 Impact on the Non-Abused Partner .......................................... 25 Resiliency and Mediating Factors...................................................... 27 Characteristics of Abuse and Survivors .................................... 28 Family of Origin ......................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Sublimation in the Work of May Sinclair: “The Flaw in the Crystal”
    Sublimation in the Work of May Sinclair: “The Flaw in the Crystal” Marianne Choquet Masters Thesis Construction and Representation of Cultural Identities Universitat de Barcelona 2007-2008 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 3 ADAM AND EVE 10 SUBLIMATION 14 THE UNCANNY STRANGERS WE ARE TO OURSELVES 17 FICTION 22 CONCLUSION 52 BIBLIOGRAPHY 59 2 This thesis argues that desire in May Sinclair’s “The Flaw in the Crystal” (1912), is depicted as a driving force urging a new paradigm for the male/female relationship in modern society. It begins by exploring the symbolic meaning of two female icons of the Judaeo-Christian traditions; Eve and Mary, and how their images have contributed emotionally as well as physically to woman’s development and affected man’s. While deconstructing the text and grammatical structure of its semantics, this essay asks the reader to consider the internal and personal process of sublimation required to attain the spiritual/physical merger encouraged in Sinclair’s text as well as how that reflects on the external and collective process. Finally, it offers the reader a vision of how these processes not only mirror each other but present a more active way to participate in human evolution. INTRODUCTION Two years shy of the beginning of the end of The Old World Order1, in 1912, English writer May Sinclair (Mary Amelia St. Clair Sinclair) (1863- 1946) was calling for the beginning of the end of another world order; the patriarchal society we are still deconstructing today. A once popular but, unfortunately, today little known author of poetry, short stories, essays, and twenty-four novels, she also wrote two book- length philosophical studies of idealism2.
    [Show full text]
  • The Egalitarian Occultism of Dion Fortune
    1 Tea, Scones and Socially Responsible Sex Magic: The Egalitarian Occultism of Dion Fortune Georgia van Raalte Student number: 10864105 [email protected] Supervisor: Dr. Marco Pasi Second reader: Prof. Dr. Wouter J. Hanegraaff Submitted on 14th July 2015for: MA Religious Studies Department of Religious Studies, Faculty of Humanities, Universiteit van Amsterdam 2 Table of Contents 1. Preliminaries i. Introduction 3 ii. Academic Work on Fortune 7 iii. Fortune’s Biography 8 iv. The Occult Context 11 v. Fortune’s Published Work 14 2. Audience i. Egalitarian Initiation 21 ii. Esotericism for (Almost) All 23 3. Sexuality i. The Problem of Repression 27 ii. Spiritual Sexuality 30 iii. The Use of Sublimation 33 iv. The Doctrine of Polarity 35 4. Ritual i. Ritual and Ambiguity 40 ii. The Ritual Method 43 iii. Ritual as Outlet 47 3 5. Applied Sex Magic i. Sublime Sex Magic 48 ii. The Magical Relationship 51 iii. The Group Soul 55 6. Epilogue: Everyday Esotericism 56 Bibliography 59 Appendix 1 61 Appendix 2 64 Appendix 3 66 4 1. Preliminaries 1.i. Introduction: Sexual Magic and Social Responsibility Dion Fortune is a fascinating and neglected figure of 20th century occultism. In her lifetime, she published a prodigious number of books and articles on both occult and non-occult matters, and authored a number of novels. A full exploration of her work would take up many more pages that I have at my disposal, so I have limited myself to what I believe to be the most unique aspect of her work and the one which has the most significance for the modern study of Esotericism: her approach to sexual magic.
    [Show full text]
  • The Pastoral Problem of Masturbation by John F
    The Pastoral Problem of Masturbation by John F. Harvey, OSFS Introduction Since volumes have been written about masturbation, one wonders why still another theologian feels the need to write about the subject. Is it not presumptuous to believe that one has something new to say about an inveterate problem of both men and women over the centuries? I respond that there is something new to be said on the subject, for example, one's response to new thinking on the matter, as well as one's personal experience in counseling persons struggling with the habit of masturbation. In this endeavor I have garnered fresh insights concerning the psychology of masturbation from the study of sexual addiction, of which masturbation is a prime example. I have also been impressed by spiritual support groups which take the habit of masturbation seriously, such as Sexaholics Anonymous (S.A.), Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous (S.L.A.A.), Homosexuals Anonymous (H.A.) and Courage. This is a welcome change from the Ann Landers theology that masturbation can be a form of therapy. Another reason why I attempt to write on the subject is that many persons struggling with same-sex attractions do not receive adequate spiritual and moral guidance. In some instances they are misguided, having been told that it enhances the performance of the marital act, or that it is part of the process of recovery from sexual difficulties. It is now well known that the habit of masturbation reaches into all the stages of life from infancy to old age. It is found among children, teenagers, young adults, married folk, the aged, religious, seminarians, and priests.
    [Show full text]
  • Sigmund Freud, Sublimation, and the Russian Silver Age Ana Siljak
    Sigmund Freud, Sublimation, and the Russian Silver Age Ana Siljak Freud’s lengthiest and most exhaustive exposition of sublimation and its particular relationship to knowledge and creativity is acknowledged to be his Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of his Childhood, published in 1910. It has been called “fundamental to psychoanalytical thought,” and the “foundational” text on sublimation.1 Freud had already discussed the idea of sublimation – the redirection of sexual impulses away from their original objects and toward “higher” pursuits – in numerous theoretical texts prior to his work on Leonardo. Curiously, however, Freud chose to develop his theory most fully through an idiosyncratic psychological biography of Leonardo Da Vinci. A few explanations have been advanced for Freud’s interest in Leonardo. Leonardo had already been canonized by the nineteenth century as a particular kind of modern genius: a man with a rare combination of dispassionate analysis, an urge to experiment, a daring imagination, and an incredible artistic talent. He inspired Goethe, Kant, and Stendahl to see him as a misunderstood prophet of the Enlightenment. His art was similarly perceived as enigmatic: the Mona Lisa, most probably painted between 1503 and 1506 was, in the nineteenth century, already the iconic painting it is to this day. Writers as diverse as Theophile Gautier, Jules Michelet, and George Sand mused upon its beauty, and, in particular, the “mystery” of the Mona 1 Rossella Valdre, On Sublimation: A Path to the Destiny of Desire, Theory, and Treatment (London: Karnac Books, 2014), 20-22. Bradley Collins notes that dozens of books and articles have been written on this single work.
    [Show full text]
  • Disciplining Sexual Deviance at the Library of Congress Melissa A
    FOR SEXUAL PERVERSION See PARAPHILIAS: Disciplining Sexual Deviance at the Library of Congress Melissa A. Adler A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Library and Information Studies) at the UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON 2012 Date of final oral examination: 5/8/2012 The dissertation is approved by the following members of the Final Oral Committee: Christine Pawley, Professor, Library and Information Studies Greg Downey, Professor, Library and Information Studies Louise Robbins, Professor, Library and Information Studies A. Finn Enke, Associate Professor, History, Gender and Women’s Studies Helen Kinsella, Assistant Professor, Political Science i Table of Contents Acknowledgements...............................................................................................................iii List of Figures........................................................................................................................vii Crash Course on Cataloging Subjects......................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Setting the Terms: Methodology and Sources.......................................................5 Purpose of the Dissertation..........................................................................................6 Subject access: LC Subject Headings and LC Classification....................................13 Social theories............................................................................................................16
    [Show full text]
  • Volume 2, Spring 2020
    JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES Spring 2020 COLLEGE OF Saint Elizabeth Title: Fathering Emotions: The Relationship between Fathering and Emotional Development Author(s): Anthony J. Ferrer Abstract The study of child development is an ever growing and consistently important area of psychology. Research suggests that parenting starts as early as conception and that a developing fetus can be affected by maternal and parental bonding in addition to biological influences. However there is a lack of research regarding the effect fathering has on the child’s development and there is a surplus of research regarding the effect of mothers parenting on the child’s development. Currently research neglects families raised by single fathers, two fathers, and other cis-male and trans-male caregivers. This paper will provide an in-depth review of emotional development in children, “parenting”, and will highlight the limited literature on the effects of fathering on emotional development. Title: Brain Impairments in Maltreated Children Author(s): Carl C. Papandrea Abstract The purpose of this paper is to explore the brain development in typically developing and maltreated children as noted by neuroimaging technology. The use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides insight into how early experiences affect the developing brain, and provides biological implications for what practitioners identified through behavioral, psychological, and emotional terms. Neurobiological impairments have been seen in children who experience adverse childhood experiences, this paper reviews literature that identifies and explains these findings. Title: Common Personality Traits in Youth and Connection with Antisocial Personality Author(s): Carl C. Papandrea Abstract The purpose of this paper is to explore the links between common maladaptive personality traits in youth with conduct problems and their connection to Antisocial Personality Disorder.
    [Show full text]
  • The Sublime Pleasure
    The Sublime Pleasure by Georgiana Danet, mental trainer, yoga teacher, holistic coach and founder of Holistic Life Hub™ A great secret in the practice of tantric sexual continence is to learn the mechanism of orgasm. THE SUBLIME, ELEVATED PLEASURE Learn the mechanism of orgasm By Georgiana Danet, mental trainer, yoga teacher, holistic coach and founder of Holistic Life Hub™ 1 Contents A great secret in the practice of tantric sexual continence ...........................................................................................................4 Orgasm – the ecstatic dance of energies ....................................................................................................................................................................4 The fluid stage .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................8 The abrupt stage .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................8 The chaos stage ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................9 The lyric stage ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................9
    [Show full text]
  • Sexuality Development and Developmental Psychology
    Chapter 6 Sexuality Development and Developmental Psychology While most humans appear to invoke free will regarding their sexual behav- ior, their sexuality in turn often seems to subvert a great deal of this will. That is, our sexual desires, inclinations, and identity greatly influence our decisions and behavior. People tacitly accept this principle when they advocate imprisonment for individuals who commit sex crimes against children. Implicit in this involuntary commitment process is the premise that the offender will not be able to control himself or herself against committing future offenses and thus should be physically prevented from doing so. This generally accepted act of prevention applies to the most extreme and dangerous sexual behaviors. But is the violent pedophile really less in control of his sexual behavior than those individuals who exhibit socially acceptable forms of sexuality? Or, is it that most of the population enacts a sexual- ity that is no more under control but considered a normative part of both nature and society? In essence, the issue is—regardless of the sexual behavior that an individual engages in—whether he or she is ultimately in control of that behavior. Wine connoisseurs often encourage the uninitiated to educate their palates to better appreciate fine wines. In doing so, they are encouraging people to suppress their innate aversion to what is essentially rancid grape juice with a bit of alcohol. With repeated exposure to the initially repellant properties of the wine, and with the guidance of an expert identifying specific hedonic properties, an individual can come to identify what is deemed to be a desirable wine.
    [Show full text]
  • Psychological Factors in Marital Sex Problems
    Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Master's Theses Theses and Dissertations 1948 Psychological Factors in Marital Sex Problems Leonard Manning Ware Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses Part of the Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Ware, Leonard Manning, "Psychological Factors in Marital Sex Problems" (1948). Master's Theses. 812. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses/812 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 1948 Leonard Manning Ware PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTCRS IN MARITAL SEX PROBLEMS BY LEONARD MANNING WARE A THESIS SUBMITTED in PARTIAL FULFILLil,l[ENT of the REQUIR~ffiNTS for the DEGREE of 1ffiSTER of ARTS in LOYOLA IDfIVERSITY DECEMBER 1948 VITA Leonard Manning Ware was born in Chioago, Illinois, November 13, 1903· He was graduated from DePaul University, Chioago, Illinois, June, 1927, with the degree of Baohelor of Laws, and was admitted to the Illinois bar in October, 1927. The Baohelor of Arts degree with a major in psyohology was oonferred by Roosevelt College, Chicago, Illinois, August, 1946. He has practioed law in Chicago s inoe 1927, and during the past five years he has also been engaged in practioe as a marriage counselor, serving as director of National Institute of Family Relations. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I.
    [Show full text]
  • Buddhism and the Formation of the Religious Body
    MALCOLM VOYCE Buddhism and the formation of the religious body A Foucauldian approach Introduction Western conceptions of the body have often prejudiced our understanding of the body in Buddhist thought. We are often inclined, as Andrew Tuck has noted, to engage in a kind of isogesis, a kind of reading into texts values that reveal as much about ourselves as interpreters as it does about the text be- ing examined (Tuck 1990: 9–10). I suggest these projections include ideas about monasticism, the transition from ‘Hinayana to Mahayana’, the notion of the authority of the Buddha in regard to his disciples, and the conception of the Vinaya as ‘law’. Along with this list of topics we may also include the ‘body’. The terms and issues I have listed reflect preoccupations of the modern age and are too often burdened with modernist meanings to be of much use (Reynolds 2005: 226).1 Some dominant discourses in Western society have often emphasized the body as a physically and biologically given fact, to be understood like other ‘natural’ phenomena, through empirical investigation (Wright 2000: 1). The body in certain readings has been constructed as a caricature of the true inner being as a volatile animal with the soul as its prisoner (Bordo 2004: 3). For instance Plato in the Phaedo saw the passions of the body as a distraction to the philosopher.2 Augustine emphasised the animal aspect of human nature and by contrast seventeenth century thought saw the body as a programmed system that could be controlled (Bordo 2004: 4). Poststructuralist debates around the body (Foucault 1977, Bordo 1990, Grosz 1994) have demonstrated how our knowledge of the body is consti- tuted in specific cultural and historical circumstances and in the context of particular relations of power.
    [Show full text]
  • Human Desire, Deadly Love the Vita Nova in Gide, Delay, Lacan
    https://doi.org/10.25620/ci-02_11 FABIO CAMILLETTI Human Desire, Deadly Love The Vita Nova in Gide, Delay, Lacan CITE AS: Fabio Camilletti, ‘Human Desire, Deadly Love: The Vita Nova in Gide, Delay, Lacan’, in Metamorphosing Dante: Appropriations, Ma- nipulations, and Rewritings in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centur- ies, ed. by Manuele Gragnolati, Fabio Camilletti, and Fabian Lam- part, Cultural Inquiry, 2 (Vienna: Turia + Kant, 2011), pp. 177–200 <https://doi.org/10.25620/ci-02_11> RIGHTS STATEMENT: Metamorphosing Dante: Appropriations, Manip- ulations, and Rewritings in the Twentieth and © by the author(s) Twenty-First Centuries, ed. by Manuele Gragno- This version is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- lati, Fabio Camilletti, and Fabian Lampart, Cul- ShareAlike 4.0 International License. tural Inquiry, 2 (Vienna: Turia + Kant, 2011), pp. 177–200 ABSTRACT: The relationship between Dante and psychoanalysis is altogether (to an- ticipate one of the themes of this essay) a sort of unconsummated love. Both Dante’s and Freud’s works start from the image of a catabasis, safeguarded and sanctioned by Virgil. As Lacan noticed in his seminar Les quatre concepts fondamentaux de la psychanalyse (1964): ‘n’oublions pas que Freud, quand il commença de remuer ce monde, articula ce vers, qui paraissait lourd d’inquiétantes appréhensions quand il l’a prononcé, et dont il est bien remarquable que la menace soit, après soixante ans d’expériences, complètement oubliée — Flectere si nequeo superos Acheronta movebo. Il est remarquable que ce qui s’annonçait comme une ouverture infernale ait été dans la suite aussi remarquablement aseptisé.’ The absence of Dante from Freud’s reflection is remarkable — not only because psychoanalysis is, as Lacan constantly remarked in the seminar L’éthique de la psychanalyse (1959–60), an intrinsically devilish operation, through which the human psyche is returned to the ‘prince of this world’, Diabolus (I will return to this passage at the end of this essay).
    [Show full text]
  • Communists Have More Fun! the Dialectics of Fulfillment in Cinema of the People’S Republic of China
    Communists Have More Fun! The Dialectics of Fulfillment in Cinema of the People’s Republic of China Jason McGrath Within the first third of Xie Jin’s 1961 revolutionary classic Red Detachment of Women (Hongse niangzi jun; later adapted as both a model ballet and a model Peking opera during the Cultural Revolution), a definite pattern in the lighting scheme emerges. Every sequence set in the area of Hainan Island controlled by the Nationalist or Guomindang (KMT) government is dark and gloomy, with glowering, underlit villains and deep architectural shadows appropriate to the landlord Nan Batian’s dungeons, in which proletarian slaves like the film’s heroine, Wu Qionghua, are tortured (fig. 1). In contrast, the areas of Hainan controlled by the insurgent Communists (the year is 1930), including the Red women’s detachment that Qionghua joins after an undercover Communist agent facilitates her escape, seem always to be bathed in bright sunlight (fig. 2). Fig. 1 Red Detachment (Nan Batian at Fig. 2 Red Detachment (Wu Qionghua on center) left) In keeping with the lighting scheme and even more striking is the radical lack of anything resembling joy in depictions of the KMT-held areas on the one hand, and the abundance of everyday happiness represented in the Communist strongholds on the other. The people and soldiers of the liberated areas laugh, dance, and playfully splash water on each other, while those suffering under the old society live in darkness, misery, and mutual estrangement. It is not just that the ordinary people are happier under communism; even Nan Batian himself, the richest and most powerful landlord in the region, can never seem to muster more than a lingering smirk or at best a false smile.
    [Show full text]