“I am directly challenging the notion that revenge has any clinical benefit to the victim”
I wish you would look into it because the data does not agree with you. But your mistake is calling it revenge (and attributing a desire for the money is just ludicrous). The therapeutic value is in confrontation and validation. So much so that therapy pushes for this to happen SO THAT healing can happen. According to many people who work with those who were molested, the molestation was only half the damage. The betrayal of the adults who didn’t protect them or protected the abuser was the nail in the coffin. To the extent, according to some of these therapists/counselor, that it can determine if the person can heal at all. This damage of being nullified and made into a virtual nothing, can sometimes only be healed by being acknowledged and supported. In real life. By the very people who killed them.
Which may help you understand why We are so protective of them when opportunity strikes.
