Abstract

GOMEZ DE TERREROS GUARDIOLA, M.. Psychological abuse. Cuad. med. forense [online]. 2006, n.43-44, pp.103-116. ISSN 1988-611X.

In 1989, Garbarino, Guttman and Seeley defined psychological abuse as "an attack made by an adult on the development of the personality and the social competence of the child through a repeated pattern of destructive conduct and that is pronounced by means of five forms: to reject, to isolate, to terrify, to ignore and to corrupt, but beside this it is difficult to find a publication on this subject in general, or in psychological abuse in particular, that does not make reference to the problems of definition and categorization. Despite that already there has been 30 years of investigation that shows the adverse consequences of the emotional abuse or neglect in the infancy, the institutions, in scarce occasions, attend these cases if they do not go accompanied by other forms of sexual or physical abuse. There exists a series of measures that can put remedy to the situation, but when it is observed that there isn't a consistent and understandable definition of the emotional abuse or psychological maltreatment that considers both abuse and neglect, any decision that tries to remedy the situation is difficult to assume. An early detection and accusation of the suspicion of psychological maltreatment to the pertinent institution, as an early intervention, can prevent and minimize the consequences of the abuse.

Keywords : Psychological abuse; emotional abuse and neglect; definition.

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