Object relations and physical abuse: a TAT analysis

Selected Thematic Apperception Test (Murray, 1943) stories of 39 physically abused children and a clinical group of 39 children with no recorded history of abuse were examined using the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scales (Westen, Lohr, Silk, Kerber, & Goodrich, 1985). As predicted, a history of physical abuse was associated with a more malevolent object world; a lower level capacity for emotional investment in relations and moral standards; and less accurate, complex, and logical attributions of causality in understanding human interaction. These impairments in object relations were manifest both as a typical level of functioning and as a propensity for more grossly pathological functioning. Results are discussed in terms of clinical and theoretical implications.