Journal #6 (Psychological Maltreatment)

     Source six was the book "Child Maltreatment" By Cindy and Robin Perrin. The book, especially chapter six, which deals with psychological maltreatment specifically, gives an insight of psychological maltreatment and how the fact that since it's such a new form of child abuse that it's hard to determine when it is occurring. Going into this book I expected to get an overall in-depth summary of what psychological maltreatment is, so that I could have the most complete understanding of the topic as possible before writing my paper.

     The chapter discusses the fact that psychological maltreatment is hard to determine in three ways. The first being the definition of psychological. "Psychological can be broadened due to the fact that negative psychological thoughts usually cannot occur without negative physical or verbal actions. Therefore, one must conclude that psychological maltreatment also includes physical or verbal maltreatment, simple because it is a prerequisite to the negative psychological thought." (Perrin, 2013) This is a mind altering theory to me. It makes complete since, right? You don't just come up with negative thoughts about yourself or others out of nowhere, right? So, was psychological maltreatment simply a responsive mechanism to physical and verbal abuse? I think not, because there is a form of psychological thinking that was not explained. Body language. Sometimes, when just looking at a person, I can feel how they feel, especially about me in some circumstances. This requires no physical or verbal stimulation, but I still contract negative thoughts about myself or others. The second and third problems coincide with one another, recognition and legal response. Recognizing psychological maltreatment is extremely sensitive because it happens within the child's mind. A child may not respond to the negative situations that it is in due to the fact that the child doesn't know what is going on. Psychological maltreatment may take months to develop and become apparent, which is problematic because most individuals wish to stop the negative actions of the parent as soon as they happen. But if the children themselves don't recognize it until months in, chances are that the public cannot stop it from happening. That is the same problem that the legal powers face. How do they specify that psychological maltreatment is occurring when they only have the child's self report and the parent's self report to go off of? Since humans notoriously lie, it is a very sensitive situation to deal with. However, I believe that it is really easy to tell how psychological maltreatment has taken place. And once again, body language is the answer. The way people project themselves is rarely inaccurate, so if one can read the body language of someone who has experienced psychological maltreatment, it is quite possible to recognize. 

     Going into my final source, I wanted to find a book that would not only explain everything that the articles I've read, but also give me new information as to why this form of child abuse is so difficult to define and understand. "Child Maltreatment" by Cindy L. Miller-Perrin and Robin D. Perrin, gave me just that. They explain in chapter six of their book just about everything that has been collected in child psychological maltreatment to date. After reading over this chapter, I'm now certain that psychological maltreatment is the most dangerous form of child abuse.