Whoa: Scott Brown Reveals Boyhood Abuse in CBS Interview

Long before he was a model, a husband and father, a legislator on Beacon Hill, or an improbable US Senator from Massachusetts, Scott Brown was the victim of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse. In an interview with 60 Minutes' Leslie Stahl, Brown reveals for the first time the trauma he suffered as a child, and the repressed shame he's harbored for decades:

Giving an interview like this requires great personal courage. Holding out one's own example of abuse for public consumption in order to raise awareness and encourage other victims is no small thing, especially for an established political figure. Brown says a sense of anxious powerlessness drove him to keep his secret for years; it was so ingrained in his psyche that prior to this interview, he'd never confided in anyone -- not even own mother, or wife. It's hard not to admire Sen. Brown for finally shedding those psychological shackles and vanquishing the emotional demons of his past. It's also refreshing to see a politician confront this type of issue in a direct and healthy way on his own terms; not as a half-baked excuse in the heat of a scandal.