Book review: Týrané, Zneužívané a Zanedbávané Dítě (The Abused, Exploited and Neglected Child) by Jiři Dunovský, Zděnek Dytrych, Zděnek Matějček and Team, GRADA Publishing House, Prague, 1995, 248 pp. Published with financial backing from the Czech Ministry of Health. Price: 30 Czech Crowns.
✍ Scribed by Alice Sluckin
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1998
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 137 KB
- Volume
- 7
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0952-9136
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The authors of this Czech textbook on child abuse (physical, emotional, sexual, ritual, Munchausen syndrome-by-proxy) are well-known and highly respected experts in the ®eld of child care in the Czech Republic. Professor Dunovsky has for many years published books and papers on social paediatrics and childhood developmental delay and represents his country on numerous international bodies. Professor Z. Dytrych is a leading Czech psychiatrists, who continued to have contact with the West throughout the darkest days of Communism. Together, Professors Dytrych and MateÏ jcÏ ek drew attention to what they termed ``psychological sub-deprivation'' way back in the seventies (Dytrych and MateÏ jcÏ ek, 1975;MateÏ jcÏ ek, 1988), long before there was awareness of the damage done to children by `emotional abuse' in the West. Professor Z. MateÏ jcÏ ek, the psychologist of the trio, is also a well-known researcher in ®elds such as dyslexia (MateÏ jcÏ ek, 1988) and speci®c learning problems (MateÏ jcÏ ek, 1989) and is the author of many excellent popular books on child care for teachers and parents (MateÏ jcÏ ek, 1986).
We learn in the introduction (p. 11) that despite eorts on the part of Czech paediatricians from 1970 onwards, who were only too aware of the maltreatment, abuse and neglect to which some children were exposed, no ocial encouragement was given to those dealing with the problem. It was only after the revolution in 1989 and the ISPCAN conference in Prague in 1991 that it was possible to make concrete plans for the future.
The authors state that the object of the book is to give much needed information to specialists, but also to draw the attention of the general public to the seriousness of the problem. In order to achieve this they have included six excellent colour illustrations of children with in¯icted injuries to dierent parts of the body. There are 21 chapters that fully cover all aspects of the subject, and a list of references of relevant papers in Czech, English, German and other European languages. There are chapters by lawyers about legal implications such as the diculties a child is likely to experience when giving evidence in a court of law.
Professor Dytrych draws attention to the psychiatric conditions which may follow childbirth, such as postnatal depression and postnatal psychosis, sometimes leading to infanticide, a subject little discussed before the revolution. In 1989, during a visit to Prague's main mental hospital, I myself spoke to a young mother who was in a locked ward following bizarre behaviour after childbirth; she had been separated from her baby, and desperately wanted to be reunited, but to no avail! A social worker also very ably discusses the role of the social worker in cases of child abuse and neglect. One has to keep in mind that social work under the Communists was denied a professional status, but it is now increasingly recognized that the profession can make a unique contribution. Under Communism there was a tendency to deny, on one hand, the existence of social and psychological problems,