Not only clergy and counselors but also doctors caring for physical health violate boundaries all too often. A ten-page chapter summarizes the results of a 1990 survey. A questionnaire mailed to 10,000 physicians had 1891 respondents among whom ten percent of the males and four percent of the females acknowledged sexual contact with one or more patients. Among other suggestions, the authors recommend that medical schools should better address the need for training in boundary maintenance. After 40 pages of historical and factual background, there are 90 pages on the victims of professional abuse, then nearly 100 on the perpetrators and, finally, about 60 on responses to the problems.
Several chapters consist of personal stories of sexual abuse by professionals.
A few chapters are accounts by therapists who have treated victims. Since all the essays in this book began as oral presentations, they are not burdened with numerous references within the text itself as articles written for scholarly journals tend to be. However, they are well informed as well as very readable. Readers of this book might find the above essays especially interesting but the entire work pleased this reviewer. The content is rich, the style is engaging.