Taft High School Child Development Questions I have attached BOTH of the articles in the files section below. Please review BOTH of the articles I provided
Taft High School Child Development Questions I have attached BOTH of the articles in the files section below. Please review BOTH of the articles I provided below. It is based on the Intervention of Emotional Abuse. Please answer each questions after reading through the articles. Basically compare and contrast both of the articles WHILE answering the questions below. Who is the program developed for (parents, children)?Describe what the program does. Be specific enough for the reader to understand what the program entails.Summarize research findings on the effectiveness on the program from the peer reviewed, empirical article.I need each of the questions answered in depth! Use good grammar please and no plagiarism, ONLY cite and reference it. Please write 2 full pages double spaced! INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY, 60 (1) 2010
SMULLENS
EMOTIONAL ABUSE
The Codification and Treatment of
Emotional Abuse in Structured
Group Therapy
SaraKay Smullens, M.S.W., B.C.D
Abstract
Emotional abuse in childhood, in contrast to physical or sexual abuse, is a form
of maltreatment which has been slow to receive widespread discussion. Categorizing emotional abuse highlights the ongoing realities of emotionally abused
individuals. The five categories introduced here help to classify developmental
problems, create treatment plans, and identify preventive opportunities. After a
discussion of these categories, representative case histories from therapy groups
are presented. These case histories are then traced through major phases of
group therapy conducted within a structured setting and occurring on a timelimited basis.
SaraKay Smullens, whose private and pro bono clinical practice is in Philadelphia, is a
certified group psychotherapist and family life educator. She is a recipient of a Lifetime
Achievement Award from the Pennsylvania chapter of NASW, which recognized her longstanding community organization, advocacy, and activism, as well as the codification of
patterns of emotional abuse and the development of the model to address it, which is
described in this paper.
The author would like to thank Elaine Jean Cooper for her invaluable guidance in preparing this paper for submission and her unwavering assistance in incorporating peer
review suggestions and cogent direction from the journal editor, Les Greene. The author
also wishes to thank David M. Sachs, M.D. for his vital clinical contributions noted in the
paper, and Stanton N. Smullens, M.D. and Stuart Horwitz for their astute and patient
editorial comments. She would also like to express appreciation to those Philadelphia
social service agencies, schools, and resources, including the Probation Department and
District Attorneys Office, who had confidence in this model and whose referrals helped
in its definition and refinement. Finally, she wishes to express gratitude to her clients,
from myriad socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds, for their trust and persistence in
working with, supporting, and learning from each other.
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Emotional abuse is a form of psychological manipulation and
acute victimization that gets considerably less attention in the
literature than its counterparts, sexual and physical abuse (Hart
& Brassard, 1987; Kent, Waller, & Dagnan, 1999; Sidebotham,
2000), although, as Higgins and McCabe (2000) and Wolfe and
McGee (1994) suggest, emotional abuse is nearly always involved
in physical abuse and sexual abuse. In one recent study, for example, 90% of physically abused children had experienced emotional abuse as well (Claussen & Crittenden, 1991). At least one
recent study has found emotional abuse to be the most prevalent
form of abuse (Sidebotham, 2000). While emotional abuse tends
to be somewhat overlooked, Hart and Brassard (1987) suggest
that its importance as a concept clarifies and unifies the dynamics that underlie the destructive power of all forms of childhood
abuse and neglect (p. 161).
The lack of serious study about emotional abuse as an entity
in its own right is slowly beginning to change. In 1997, the Journal of Emotional Abuse began its publication. Documents such as
the American Humane Fact Sheet (2004) have emerged, stating
that those who are constantly ignored, shamed, terrorized, or
humiliated suffer at least as much, if not more, than if they are
physically assaulted (p. 1). In fact, the seeds for the recent reaction of the therapeutic community to the widespread nature
and brutal quality of emotional abuse were actually sown–albeit
incompletelyover two decades ago. In 1987, the National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse created the following
definition of emotional abuse:
Emotional abuse is a pattern of behavior that attacks a childs emotional development and sense of self-worth. Emotional abuse includes excessive, aggressive or unreasonable demands that place
expectations on a child beyond his or her capacity. Constant criticizing, belittling, insulting, rejecting and teasing are some of the forms
these verbal attacks can take. Emotional abuse also includes failure
to provide the psychological nurturing necessary for a childs psychological growth and developmentproviding no love, support or
guidance. (Cohn, 1987, p. 12)
EMOTIONAL ABUSE
113
Codification of Emotional Abuse
The first codification of emotional abuse was constructed by
Garbarino, Guttmann, and Seeley (1986). This codification, its
extension by Pearl (1994), and the acceptance of that extension
by Hamarman and Bernet (2000), has contributed greatly to the
literature of emotional abuse. The Garbarino et al. codification
defines psychological maltreatment as a concerted attack by an
adult on a childs development of self and social competence.
They also classifiy five patterns of psychically destructive behavior: rejecting, defining the child as a failure, refusing to legitimize
the childs worth or show affection to the child; isolating, cutting
the child off from normal social experiences, including the forming of friendships; terrorizing, creating a climate of fear through
threatening, bullying, or frightening the child; ignoring, depriving
the child of essential stimulation and responsiveness; and corrupting, encouraging the child to participate in antisocial or deviant
behavior. These categories were extended by Pearl in 1994 with
the inclusion of verbally assaulting, humiliating the child through
constant name-calling and sarcastic comments which beat down
the childs self-esteem; and overpressuring, imposing consistent
pressure on a child to mature too quickly and decrying age-appropriate behaviors through punishment or criticism.
The Garbarino et al. codification also traced the dynamics
of each type of emotional abuse through various developmental stages; for example, investigating the characteristic behaviors
and specific effects of terrorizing through infancy, early childhood, school age, and adolescence. The codification also presented the ecological perspective, which views emotional abuse as
occurring not solely within a parent-child dyad but within a larger
dynamic sphere involving all caregivers and children within the
family system and beyond that to the environmental context as
a whole.
The Garbarino et al. codification was based on clinical material derived from child therapy. In contrast, my efforts at codification (Smullens, 2002a) takes a different perspective; namely, the
retrospective narratives of adults in treatment. I draw inferences
from the self-reports of adults who are experiencing current dysfunctional and self-destructive patterns in their love, work, and
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spiritual relations (Smullens, 2002b) about how these patterns
arose in childhood. While there is always the danger of taking
client self-assessments at face value, and accepting certain distortions that may be present, there remains a critical benefit of being able to reflect on the idea that such patterns re-emerge and
repeat throughout the individuals life.
This perspective has led me to a somewhat different codification of emotional abuse. In the next section, I describe each
of my categories in terms of their childhood dynamic and adult
ramifications, with reference to the Garbarino et al. codification
(with the exception of corrupting, which has been infrequently
encountered in my experience). This is followed by part of a case
history representative of each category. A continuation and culmination of these histories will be found in a succeeding section
on contracting.
The specific categories have been chosen because they isolate
and describe discrete states of humiliation and shame, the core of
emotional abuse, that clients bring to treatment. I am aware that
the codifications have some overlap. David M. Sachs, a Training
and Supervising Analyst in the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia, noted that All diagnoses (and your descriptive categories
are similar to psychiatric descriptive categories) share defenses.
In most cases, one defensive system is dominant
the important
issue is that the categorizations you define are useful in doing
group therapy. These categories are something patients can hold
onto in the group experience. They are touchstones to help them
individually and collectively to attain the experience of insight
and change. It is not possible to make your classifications so neat
and precise that overlap does not occur (Sachs, personal communication, March 2008).
A CODIFICATION OF EMOTIONAL ABUSE
AS EXPRESSED IN GROUP THERAPY
Rage
My classification of rage essentially combines Garbarino et al.s
categories of terrorizing and verbally assaulting–where bullying or
threatening a childs well-being is combined with demeaning. Of-
EMOTIONAL ABUSE
115
ten, for the parent or caregiver, the urge to aggress is stronger
than willpower. Acts of maltreatment are totally irrational and are
the results of uncontrollable urges: psychological violence results
from a loss of control by the parent due to these urges (Gagné
& Bouchard, 2004, p. 124). The anger that can permeate a home
following one of these rages can frighten children so badly that it
keeps them from thinking for themselves, from learning to trust
their own judgments, or from creating their own paths (Hamarman & Bernet, 2000). It can also leave victims ill-equipped to deal
with the legitimate emotional reactions of others. The rages that
are experienced by those abused in this cycle can create a pendulum swing of emotional reactions, ranging from terror, helplessness, and inability to be assertive, to an identification with the
abuser (Ganzarain & Buchele, 1988).
Celestes mother felt that she had married down and treated her
husband as if he were a chair to sit on or a living paycheck. At the
same time, her ambitions for her children were as sky high as her
daughters name: they were to be stars. She expected her children
to become fiercely ambitious as well as ruthless and taught them
her full arsenal of verbally abusive maneuvers. For her, winning
was everything and stabbing people in the back to get ahead was
fine. She also taught her children how to be exceptionally charming. If Celeste questioned her mothers tactics or values her mother
screamed at her for days on end, labeling Celeste an ungrateful
bitch–until Celeste apologized for being unkind to Mommy, who
wants only the best for me.
Celeste identified with her mother by acting out anger toward her
friends, gleefully ridiculing them behind their backs any time pain
or difficulty was revealed. One by one Celestes friends slipped away,
until the only ones remaining in Celestes life were those seduced by
her charm who had not yet felt the inevitable sting of an intimate
relationship with her. It was finally the breakdown of one of her
closest female friendships that brought Celeste to group therapy.
Enmeshment
The category of enmeshment shares something of the Garbarino
et al. category of rejecting, in that the childs individual worth or
legitimate needs are repudiated. It is more closely akin to the
category of isolating, where the adult cuts the child off from nor-
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mal social experiences, including the forming of friendships. In
the enmeshed family, there is no place for privacy, for individual
thoughts. Those outside of the family unit are treated as outsiders. Enmeshment leaves an individual unable to feel and function
like a whole and separate person or to choose other whole people
with whom to develop meaningful friendships, to work with effectively, or to love intimately. Even if professional and financial
success occurs, individuals who are a product of this environment cannot feel pride or contentment unless those feelings are
mirrored by other blood family members.
Lionel, now in his mid-forties, grew up in what he described as an
unusually close family that always took vacations together, even until he was in his late twenties. His mother was very strict about all
contact with those she openly labeled as outsiders–not one of us.
As a child, Lionels friendships outside of the home were carefully
monitored and restricted. While peer relationships with other boys-and eventually with girls as well–were frowned upon, Lionel was expected to have a special and close relationship to his sister Ellen,
six years his juniorfor in the repeatedly stated view of his mother,
No one can love you and be relied upon like blood. When Ellen
graduated from college their mother insisted that she and Lionel
live together, and she purchased a condominium for them.
When Lionel, at age 28, met Karen, whom he identified immediately as his soul mate, a triangular conflict arose that brought Lionel
to my office. Lionel felt terrible guilt when he decided to move out
of the condo he and Ellen shared to move in with Karen–guilt exacerbated by Ellens manipulations. She had repeated crying spells.
When the three went out to dinner she sat next to Lionel, placing
Karen across from them. Ellen would call Lionel and Karens apartment at 1:30 a.m. to discuss what the siblings were going to do
about minor or nonexistent parental problems, imploring Lionel
not to discuss these difficulties with Karen.
Rejection/Abandonment
This category refers to the withdrawing of love by caretakers when
a child expresses an opinion that differs from the caregivers, leaving the child feeling isolated and terrified to think independently
(Weiss, 1993). Garbarino et al. terms the category simply rejecting,
noting behaviors such as defining the child as a failure and refus-
EMOTIONAL ABUSE
117
ing to acknowledge the childs accomplishments. If the abused in
the cycle of rejection/abandonment threatens the parents fragile self-esteem by actions not agreed with, or does not look or act
like the ideal offspring a parents narcissistic needs demand, love
will be denied. In this classification, rejection is experienced as
personal. Even if conciliatory advances on the part of the child
are finally accepted, the lingering effects of those suffering this
dynamic may include emotional unresponsiveness, hostility or
aggression, poor self-esteem, and emotional instability (Rohner,
1986). Understandably, those enduring this cycle learn to view
love and control as one and the same–as a weapon–and trust neither, which leaves them clinging, forever fearful of loss, or rejecting people who can offer fulfillment, growth, and contentment.
Clients who have had this experience will often test their therapist as well as the other members of the group by alternating
between flattery and praise and expressions of righteous indignation and disappointment over minor or imaginary infractions
(Weiss, 1993).
Aprils parents rejected her in favor of their other daughter, Catherine, in part because April received the skin coloration of the two
girls paternal grandmother, who was hated by both her son and
daughter-in-law. In addition, Catherine was long-legged and athletic, a gifted pianist with a beautiful singing voice–all crucial qualities
to excessively narcissistic parents who were climbing the social ladder and denying their pasts. April had hair that was, in her mothers
words, dirty, ugly, and unruly. Ignored even at meals, as if she
were not at the table, April taught herself to read by age 5. Her pitiful attempts to show her parents her accomplishments resulted in
remarks like, What good is that when you look like you do. Leave
us alone.
By the time April was 6 she verbalized that her parents hated her
and wished she were gone. At first Catherine expressed protection of her younger sister, praising her accomplishments and telling her that their parents did not mean to hurt her. But during
adolescence, Catherine began to identify with their cruelty, taking
pleasure in its expression, excessively so when at her mothers insistence she entered the competitive world of modeling. Any time
Catherine experienced a frustration or disappointment, she used
April as an available scapegoat, parroting her mothers ugly words
to her sister.
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April survived because she liked school even though she was a withdrawn student. Evening following evening she comforted herself
with books of all kinds, withdrawing to their fantasized sanctuary.
She would pretend that the books said goodnight to her. Desperate
to feel wanted, though now also rejected by her sister, April continued to reach out to her, a pattern that continued until the day that
April, age 12, begged Catherine to invite her to accompany her
and their mother to a fashion luncheon where Catherine would
be modeling. On the schoolyard Catherine screamed out for all to
hear: Keep away from me. Do not touch me. You do not exist to
me. Cant you see that I hate you as much as Mom and Dad do! Get
away this moment! Just having you near me makes me feel ugly, like
you. That weekend April attempted suicide.
Severe Neglect
This category refers to a severe lack of emotional closeness,
termed ignoring in the Garbarino et al. codification, and includes
depriving the child of essential stimulation and responsiveness,
stifling emotional growth and intellectual development (Garbarino et al., 1986, p. 8). Kent and colleagues (1999) report the internal experiences of the abused in this cycle as: Experiences of
loneliness, feeling unwanted, being of no interest to others, and
feeling largely responsible for ones needs (p. 162). Although
this category may appear similar to the previous category of rejection/abandonment, the dynamics are quite different: in the
case of rejection/abandonment, the child can be comforted by
having (or by the fantasy of having) an ally in a sibling, other relatives, or meaningful contacts outside the family. In instances of
severe neglect there is usually no sense of connection to another
(Sachs, personal communication, March 2008).
Oblivious to their daughters remarkable abilities, Benitas parents
had been emotionally unavailable to her throughout her early formative years and they died in an automobile crash when she was 16
years old. An only child, Benitas despair continued when she went
to live with her cold and rejecting maternal grandmother.
When Benita came to see me for her initial interview, she could
not control her tears. She visibly shook as she spoke of periodic
fantasies of ending her own life. What was clear was her pattern
of turning anger and rage inward, leading to periods of intense
EMOTIONAL ABUSE
119
depression with intermittent suicidal ideation. Despite her intense
psychic pain, Benita had never before sought psychotherapy. She
was motivated to do so when her twin 6-month boys had both developed alarming viral infections and she had spent two nights in the
hospital with them; upon their return home her housekeeper told
her that on both nights that she was away her husband, Eric, had
another woman in their bed.
Benita was aware that her marriage had not been satisfactory for
some time; Eric was deceitful and dictatorial, starting with small
invasions of her privacy. At first Benita welcomed these incidents,
such as opening her mail or demanding to know where she was
every moment of the day, viewing them as signs of the interest,
caring, and involvement she had yearned for all of her life. Yet, in
time, her husbands intrusions became suffocating: I feel choked,
as if I lose my ability to breathe, as soon as I hear Erics footsteps approaching me, Benita told me in this initial session. She further explained that though Eric was determined to control every aspect of
her life, any questions she a…
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