Journal of Psychology & Psychotherapy
Open Access

The Allegation of Abuse as a Modality of Adolescent Onset

Iversen Morch^{* *}Correspondence: Iversen Morch, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt, Email:

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Introduction

The narcissistic question is determining in the adolescence period, whatever their gender, their family of origin, the cultural context, the condition of the subject. This sensitive question can know diversions susceptible to compromise, sometimes severely, their psychological development and perhaps their final psychological construction or even mental state. An assertion of ill-treatment, and certainly when it concerns the family links, places the young person in the center of extreme stakes in which the mechanisms of identification and projection engender diverse disorders arousing guilt and anxiety. The concept of narcissism, that is to say, literally the love brought of one’s own image, represents a key concept in understanding the psychoemotional development of the individual. Abuse in any form undermines narcissism, particularly in today's societies which are so sensitive to any aggressive movement towards the subject’s integrity. The dialectic of narcissistic and object satisfaction during adolescence, under the impulsion of genital maturation, leads to the resurgence of unconscious conflicts in primitive object relations, the supports of the subject's narcissistic foundations. One way of relieving these relational tensions consists in an enunciation of the suffering outside the family's field, sometimes putting family connections at risk. In the light of a case report this article elaborates a reflection on the allegation of maltreatment as a factor in weakening parental function as a modality of the commencement and duration of adolescence.

Therapeutic intention

To arrive at a diagnosis of a misleading claim is in itself only a step in the care of the patient; it certainly marks progress but is in no way an end in itself. In the opposite case, the young person and those around him would be left subject to emotional turmoil, which would inevitably lead to maltreatment due to the narcissistic injuries caused. How can we conceive that parents would welcome back their child who has accused them of one of the greatest evils related to parenting? We advocate, at the very least, a “space-time”, with a possible temporary separation of the protagonists and meetings at a sustained pace, in individual, couple and family formats. Coming to a diagnosis of false allegations usually sees the family regard the adolescent as an individual suffering from psychiatric problems. If the attachment bonds are already insecure, the crisis triggered by the alleged abuse often only amplifies the existing breaks with the corollary rejection of the member by the family system, the child being perceived as a disloyal ward. The professionals are then expected, from the point of the enunciation of legitimate anger, to propose a re-development of the interactional patterns. It is interesting that each protagonist, first individually and then in a family interview, positions himself in his relationships with others and accesses the conscious and unconscious elements.

Conclusion

The emergence of the collective awareness of child abuse has generated legitimate indignation. It has also created an atmosphere of passion and even a "dictatorship of emotions" maintained by various sources. In this climate, it is not easy to take proper stock of the place of lies and the fact that the child or adolescent may not necessarily be telling the truth. But what truth? In many cases, the claim must be heard and understood as an appeal for help, as an expression of suffering, even if the family circle cannot initially have access to or understand this aspect .We have noticed a form of "sacralisation" of the speech of minors, a tendency to interpret their words literally, that is to say to deprive ourselves and those involved of a real interpretation. The professional attitude should therefore consist in opening hypotheses, because nothing is more dangerous than an idea when one has only one. It is necessary to be able to consider various possibilities, even when faced with a young person whose word one feels uncomfortable to doubt or to not necessarily believe.