Conradie, ErnstEsau, Wendy2023-02-232024-03-272023-02-232024-03-271997https://hdl.handle.net/10566/10022Magister Theologiae - MThRape is a complex issue with many faces. Different researchers from the field of psychology to sociology have attempted to understand rape. ln some psychological studies, rape is considered as a psychological disorder. Psychologists like Krafft-Ebing, a researcher on sexual disorders, in his research "Psychopathia Sexualis," categorized rapists as "degenerate, imbecile men" (Brownmiller 1975:1). Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis (1856-1939) (Meyer et al 1989:39), did not deal with the subject of rape specifically. Freud viewed the sexuality of men, which was sometimes marked by aggression and a strong tendency to subdue women, as biological. It is necessary for men to overcome the resistance of the sexual object (women) by actions other than mere courting (Geis 1977:18-19). According to Freud, this aggression is a natural characteristic of being male. Thus, in rape there is no abuse or violence, no offence, no victims and no offenders (Fortune 1983:114-115\. This view that aggression was natural to being male made rape, which is an act of aggression, a natural act. Women had no need to complain, speak up, or lay a charge against their offenders in rape. They need to be silent. Rape was most of the times considered as natural and acceptable in both church and society.enChurch documentsSouth AfricaRapeSilencePatriarchyVogelmanWomen and violenceSufferingLiturgyTheories and atonementUniversity of the Western Cape