The ambivalent role of the physician in the child abuse syndrome.
The reluctance of physicians to get involved with child abuse can be attributed to the problem of role conflict. Physicians derive their social authority from the Aesculapian tradition. This form of social authority is fragile and easily subverted, yet of utmost importance if physicians are to retain their effectiveness in the role of priest, healer and counsellor. In the child abuse syndrome, however, physicians are required by law and circumstances to report such cases to social welfare and low enforcement agencies. This at once cast the physician into the role of police collaborator. This ambivalence can be rationalized by regarding the family unit, rather than just the child, as the patient, and the referral to the social agencies as a "medical consultation".
D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010820:Physicians; D011368:Professional-Family Relations