[Dynamics of child suggestibility in accusations of sexual abuse in divorce proceedings].
A case of a mother confabulating an extended sexual abuse of her 13 and 15 year old children involving bizarre sadistic features is presented and discussed. The kinship to Munchhausen Syndrome by proxy, identity diffusion, Posttraumatic Stress Syndrome, folie à deux and other concepts is highlighted. It is suggested that sexual confabulations are generated within incestuous family structures as a means to stimulate and satisfy needs of personal closeness when losses and disruptive events have occurred. The disclosure or suspicion of sexual abuse may prove neither true nor false but may hint to an impending emotional breakdown of a parent and to ongoing subtle incestuous traumatisation of a child.
du Bois
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R
Abteilung für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie, Olgahospital Stuttgart.
Röcker
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D
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000523:psychology; D002655:Child Custody / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004243:Divorce / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000523:psychology; D005104:Expert Testimony / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D013404:Suggestion; D014342:Truth Disclosure