[Mistreatment of children and family therapy]

Child Abuse and Family Therapy. The author outlines the characteristics of transactions between members in abusing families and stresses the value of systemic familial therapy in the spectrum of methods of care useful in these situations. Firstly, factors of therapeutic failures are analyzed. This is followed by a description of the constitution of functional intervention teams, with a definition of its purposes. The first goal of such a team is protection of the child against recurrence of abuse. The second goal is to establish an alliance with the abusing parents, first step toward family therapy. The third goal is to change the structural relationships in the family in such a way that the children receive adequate care. The author demonstrates the evolution of this kind of intervention and stresses the trigenerational aspect of the relational disturbances in the abusing families. The theoretical as well as the practical modalities of this type of intervention are described.