title: A psychological theory of child abuse.
abstract: This paper presents a detailed study of two patients hospitalized in a closed psychiatric unit on which the treatment program emphasized dynamically oriented individual psychotherapy and family therapy. The first patient was hospitalized following physical abuse of her four-year-old daughter, while the second was hospitalized for a postpartum depression eight weeks following the birth of her first child, a girl. Although the presenting pictures in these two patients were markedly different, the psychodynamic patterns were so similar that a detailed comparison of the two cases seems to offer useful insight into some of the psychological causes of child abuse.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002649:Child Abuse; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003163:Competitive Behavior; D003863:Depression / Q000188:drug therapy; D005201:Fantasy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008393:Marriage; D009765:Obesity / Q000188:drug therapy; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010633:Phenmetrazine / Q000009:adverse effects; D011582:Psychological Theory; D014191:Tranylcypromine / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D014191:Tranylcypromine; D010633:Phenmetrazine