Psychopathology of the physically abusing parent: a comparison with the borderline syndrome

This article compares the psychopathology of the physically abusing parent and that of the borderline patient in four specific areas: common personality characteristics; personal history; psychopathology; and psychodynamics of the abusive act. The first major personality characteristic is the umbrella characteristic of arrested emotional development, the other four characteristics are: poor self image, emotionally isolated, depressive loneliness and poorly suppressed aggression. These correlate with the four major characteristics of the core borderline personality. The personal history for both abusing parents and borderline patients indicate maternal deprivation in preverbal development. The abusing parent's psychopathology is very similar to that of the borderline patient. They both have poor ego strength, a punitive superego and use primitive ego-defenses of denial, splitting and projection. The act of abuse is related to these ego defects but in particular projective identification plays a major role. Further research is indicated and tentative implications are made as regards psychodynamically oriented treatment.