NCJ Number
174316
Journal
Journal of Aggression Volume: ltreatment & Trauma Issue: Dated: Pages: 1 (1998)-169
Date Published
1998
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This article attempts to demonstrate how traumatic abuse in childhood can lead to profound disturbances in the self.
Abstract
The article applies the concepts of I- and Me-self to research findings on abused children and youth in whom damage to the self is noted in terms of its negativity, fractionation, and lack of coherence, natural consequences of dealing with severe and prolonged maltreatment. Abusive acts and the accompanying psychological abuse at the hands of parents, coupled with dissociative defensive reactions, conspire to disrupt the self-system. With regard to I-self functions, the maltreatment results in impairments in self-awareness, sense of agency, sense of self-continuity over time, and sense of a unified self. Disturbances in the Me-self include feelings of incompetence, low self-esteem, a profound sense of inner badness, self-blame, guilt and shame, depression, suicide and other self-destructive behaviors, as well as a sense that the self that one presents to the world is false or not authentic. The article comments on the nature of parenting in maltreating homes that enhances the damage. Table, references