There was a movie made years ago dramatizing sexual abuse of
   boys at a New York boarding school.

   A line I remember:

   "I thought about my baseball card collection".

   Coping skills; our ability to disassociate from our surroundings
   is a marvelous adaptation of cognitive dissonance where the 'I
   DON'T WANT THIS!" is overwhelming. Leaves brain-scars alas [I
   consider the human memory system to be brain scars - and areas
   where there is less neural plasticity are very difficult
   structures to break down]