Core Affective Disturbance in Abused Children

This paper will explore some important aspects of the pathological mother–child interaction in cases of child abuse occurring during the first years of life. The devastating impact of the abuse and the accompanying abnormal child-rearing on the child's affective state will be described. The resulting core affective disturbance generates specific defensive operations which lead to adaptive failure and jeopardize the future development of language, cognition, motility, object relations, and self-esteem regulation.

“Child abuse” can be best understood as the repeated infliction of physical injury on a child by a parent or caretaker within the context of a pathological parent-child and family relationship. The physical assault is superimposed upon a harsh and punitive climate of child-rearing and is accompanied by a lack of empathic parenting. The immediate component consists of an acute physical and psychological assault conveying parental rage and hostility which confronts the child with the immediate threat of annihilation and/or abandonment. This may create an overwhelming traumatic