Abstract

ESTEVES, Carolina Marocco  and  BORGES, Edson Sá. The restoration of the link between mother and her baby: study case of child abuse. Psicol. cienc. prof. [online]. 2007, vol.27, n.4, pp. 760-775. ISSN 1414-9893.

The objective of the present study is to describe child abuse and the link between the mother and her baby. It is important to emphasize that one of the consequences of child abuse is a bad development of the mother's link with the child. This paper presents the theoretical and methodological approaches used during at least two years of professional Psychology training in the burned (nursing) ward in the emergency section of a hospital in Porto Alegre. We studied fifty cases during the process. This study examined one of the cases with a study-case design. The criterion used for the choice is that the case is typical and offers the reader the possibility of learning. A brief psichotherapy based on psycoanalysis conducted the treatment of the dyads. Through the clinical case, the way the mother treated the baby showed that she is unable to develop proper maternal care. One of the factors that generates this situation was observed during the psychological treatment due to the mother's previous experiences: mental illness caused by abuse in the past. It is important to highlight that the psichotherapy treatment worked, in the study, as a means to provide health and to restore this link. We elaborated a proposal to promote health and/or to prevent illness on the mother and her baby, beginning as soon as possible in the hospital, with a diagnosis and psychological (or psychiatric) treatment that should be continued just after the discharge from the hospital as well as during the child development.

Keywords : Child abuse; Primary maternal care; Mother and baby relationship; Transgenerational.

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