Trigger theory in child abuse

Press, 28 March 1979, Page 7

Trigger theory in child abuse

NZPA Sydney Some cases of child abuse may be triggered by psychotherapy given to the mother, three researchers have said. They think that mothers may have vented anger On their children within 24 hours of psychotherapy because of the psychic arousal produced by treatment or because of feeling rejected by the therapist. The researchers are professor R. C. Winkler, associate professdr of psychology at the University of Western Australia; Ms Dorothy Ginn, founder of tlji Prevention service at Sydney’s Wayside Chapel; and Mr R. Miletic, a clinical psychologist at the Prince of Wales Hospital. Prevention, a voluntary organisation, was established in 1974 with the aim of helping parents who were physically abusing children or felt they might do so. In a report in the “Medical Journal of Australia,” the researchers say that many of the mothers in touch with Prevention were receiving psychotherapy. Often the mothers would not tel! the therapist that they abused their children. They were especially

prone to beat their children in the 24-hour period after a therapy session, but often saved themselves from doing so by calling Prevention. “The therapist, not being aware that the mother battered her childthat the mother might ‘take out’ the upshot of a therapy session on her child by battering it,” they say.

The researchers say that therapists should give vulnerable mothers practical suggestions on how to deal with the situation.