Child sexual abuse interpretation as a sign-construction process

This is a reflection on Tine Jensen’s article ‘The Interpretation of Signs of Child Sexual Abuse’ (2005) and Robert Innis’s considerations ‘The Sign of Interpretation’ (2005). The article considers first the theoretical consequences of temporality as irreversible flow in meaning making and its relative stability as a narrative. Second, it focuses on ambiguity in sign processing when constructing meaning, arguing that ambiguity is always present in various ways as intrapersonal and interpersonal elaboration and as an essential quality of the elaboration of signs by individuals. Third, it considers signs given by abused children and the complexity of interpretation by others. Finally, the article offers a cultural and dialogical frame for interpretation from Marková’s triad model to the phenomena of sexual abuse.