Maternal obsessions of child sexual abuse

Abstract

Very few cases exist in the literature of maternal obsessional thoughts of child sexual abuse. Two such cases are described of mothers who experienced obsessional thoughts in the puerperium which concerned sexually abusing their own children. Obsessional thoughts of a sexual nature have been shown to occur commonly--in over 25% of those diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive neuroses. These obsessional thoughts concern actions which are usually identified as going against the sufferer's own value systems or involving sexual perversions. Obsessional thoughts of sexually abusing family members are rarely documented; there are no reports of obsessional thoughts experienced by a mother in the puerperium concerning sexual abuse of her own children. We report two cases of mothers suffering from obsessions of this nature at The Mother and Baby Unit (MBU), Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, Birmingham.