Re: Evaluating Abuse Cases

[Hermetica@xxxxxxx]

	I have not encountered any study directly on dissociation (as measured by the
DES) and abusive parents.  However a study by Main & Goldwin regarding
attachment is quite suggestive:

	Main and Goldwyn (1984) studied a group of mothers and found that the
motherās experience of her own mother as rejecting was highly related to the
motherās rejection of her own infant.  This was particularly true if the
mother displayed the cognitive distortions of idealization of the rejecting
parent, difficulty in remembering childhood, and incoherency in discussing
attachment issues.  

	[what might the relationship be between these cognitive distortions and
dissociation?]

	Main and Goldwyn write, "If a mother insisted that she was unable to recall
her childhood, her infant was significantly likely to avoid her.  If a mother
idealized her rejecting mother, her infant was also likely to avoid her.  But
if the mother expressed resentment and anger toward her mother during the
interview, and if she was coherent regarding her own feelings and experiences
surrounding attachment, her infant was unlikely to avoid her.  Thus the
childās avoidance of its mother assessed in infancy bore a systematic
relationship to the motherās efforts to describe her own childhood
experiences, and particularly to apparent distortions in the motherās
cognitive process (p. 214).

	Main, M., & Goldwyn, R. (1984). Predicting rejection of her infant from
mother's representation of her own experience:  Implications for the abuse-
abusing intergenerational cycle. Child Abuse & Neglect, 8, 203-217.

Nelson J. Binggeli, M. S.
Georgia State University