Child Mistreatment: Possible Reasons for its Transgenerational Transmission

Abstract

One of the most tragic aspects of child abuse and neglect is that it is so often perpetuated from one generation to another. The reasons that humans do not learn from their tragic past and repeat it have been considered by historians, philosophers, psychiatrists and many others. This article mentions some of the hypotheses that have been put forward to explain the repetition of history. It attemps to establish an alternate hypothesis to explain how and why mistreated children become the perpetrators in the next generation. It suggests that abuse, or neglect requires the participation of a perpetrator, victim and observer. A triquetra of these three rotates with time and circumstance. The recycling of abuse occurs because the individual, at all levels of his being, is attempting to understand the conflicts and consequent disequilibrium that were engendered within him with his early experience. Unfortunately, the re-enactment seldom results in enlightment because there is no one available to comment on the process as it occurs. Psychotherapy for child abuse requires corrective interpretation during a controlled restaging of the major conflicts.