title: Denial of reality: a form of emotional child abuse.
abstract: Parental denial of reality is a form of emotional child abuse. The case history of a 49-year-old patient in psychoanalytic psychotherapy is described in order to illustrate how parental denial, especially parental collusive denial, of reality may impair a child's sense of reality by invalidating his perceptions and memories. The resulting doubts about their truth may result in a feeling of "being crazy."
mesh_terms: D002649:Child Abuse; D003717:Denial, Psychological; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010287:Parent-Child Relations