Psychological abuse and psychological neglect: Neglect is the "failure to protect a child from exposure to any kind of danger," according to Sneddon, et al., in Child Abuse Review (2010). Emotional / psychological neglect involves the persistent emotional "ill-treatment or rejection of a child," Sneddon explains. It involves the "…failure to provide for a child's needs" by, for example, being "emotionally unresponsive or passive in the presence of a child" (Sneddon, 41). Psychological / emotional abuse on the other hand is the rejection of a child, or the emotional ill-treatment of a child, carried out in "the sustained repetitive, inappropriate emotional response to the child's experience" (Sneddon, 41). A child that is being psychologically abused is told things like, "you're stupid" and "you're lazy and no good" and "you are ugly"; that same child may also be subjected to a "withdrawal of affection" and experience "humiliation" and "degradation" psychologically (Sneddon, 41).
My own definition of psychological neglect is the deliberate verbal harassment in a household of a child that is told he can't have what the other children have, because he is no good and will never amount to anything. Psychological neglect: a child's need for love and nurturing is rejected, and he is made to go to his room if he speaks out of turn.
A profile of a psychologically maltreated child: the child is belittled at every chance the parents and older siblings have; he doesn't feel loved; his self-esteem is very low; mother and father call him "worthless" and tell him he will "…never amount to anything…"
Incest: In a father-daughter incestuous...
Mother-son incest is less frequent, and father-son / mother-daughter incestuous behaviors are even less frequent or less often reported. The way the American culture promotes sexuality through movies, television, books, magazines, billboards, the Internet and elsewhere is certainly linked to the evil situation of incest. If a woman does not "satisfy" her husband sexually, and he begins having sexual relations with his daughter, the mother gets the blame in many cases (McIntyre). Let's say the father grew up believing what he saw in movies and read in books, that in marriage sex should be happening often, and women should always be willing sexual objects for the man -- when he is disappointed that he doesn't get enough sex because society's sexual themes made him believe he is entitled to it -- he may, if the family is dysfunctional anyway, turn his sexual desires toward his daughter.
Works Cited
Lillywhite, Ralph, and Skidmore, Paula. (2006). Boys Are Not Sexually Exploited? A Challenge
to Practitioners. Child Abuse Review, 15(5), 351-361.
Public Broadcasting Service. (2009). NOW / Fighting Child Prostitution. Retrieved January 21
2012, from http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/422/index.html.
Sneddon, Helga, Iwaniec, Dorota, and Stewart, Moira C. (2010). Prevalence of Childhood Abuse
in Mothers Taking Part in a Study of Parenting their own children. Child Abuse Review,
19(1), 39-55.
