ERIC - ED369003 - The Universality of Emotional Child Abuse., 1993
Emotional child abuse is virtually inevitable in the context of the traditional nuclear family and often has a more detrimental effect on children than other, more widely publicized forms of maltreatment. This paper documents clinical, statistical, and empirical evidence showing that
Emotional child abuse is virtually inevitable in the context of the traditional nuclear family and often has a more detrimental effect on children than other, more widely publicized forms of maltreatment. This paper documents clinical, statistical, and empirical evidence showing that "normative" child-rearing practices in our culture have pathogenic properties and effects.
Manifestations of emotional child abuse include:
(1) behaviors based on parental hostility such as verbal abuse, sadistic socialization measures, lack of respect for the child's personal boundaries, threat of abandonment, and stifling a child's spontaneity;
(2) destructive practices based on indifference and neglect, including excessive permissiveness and inconsistency;
(3) behaviors based on ignorance, including dishonest role-playing, overprotection, and isolation;
(4) overly restrictive or harsh moral codes; and
(5) parents' defenses and addictive patterns that are transmitted to their children.
A number of factors are involved in the psychodynamics of emotional maltreatment: parents' ambivalent feelings, the projection of parents' negative traits onto children, the confusion between emotional hunger and genuine love, the exclusivity of traditional coupling, and the utilization of the child as a symbol of immortality. It is mandatory that we examine dehumanizing child-rearing practices delineated here in order to help future generations of children.
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