어머니를 구타한 정신과 환자

Mother Battering in Psychiatric Patients

Violence within the family has been increasing recently and most of the corresponding research has been done on wife battering or child abuse. In Korea, cases of mother battering have been found recently, however, virtually no studies have been done on the subject Fam ily violence is rarely exposed for shame and m other battering especially, is apt to be concealed This attitude of parents would create a vicious cycle of violence and eventually, cause the destruction of the family. The authors examined 34 clincal cases of patients who, after abusing their mothers, were treated as inpatients at Koryo General Hospital from S ept 1990 to Aug. 1992. The results were as follows : 1) Demographic characteristics. (1) Patients who had battered their mothers comprised 4.5% of the total num ber o f psychiatric inpatients during the span of the study. (2) Of the patients who battered their mothers, 22(64.7 % ) were male, while 12(35.3%) were female. (3) The mean age of the patients was 22.4 years old and the majority(76.5 % ) were in their late teens or early 20’s. (4) Only one was married and working full-time. (5) Fourteen patients(41.2%) said they were religious. Among them, 10 said they were Christians. (6) The patients were diagnosed as schizophrenia(14 cases), personality disorders(9), m ood disorders(5) and other psychiatric disorders(5). 2) Clinical characteristics of battering (1) The mean age of the patients at the time of the initial incidence of m other battering was 20.5. (2) 75.9% of the initial incidences of mother battering occured within one year of the patient’s having trouble with a psychiatric symptom. (3) In half of the cases(52.9%)，the battering behaviors were chronic and habitual. (4) The place of battering is usually at home, but 5 patients (14 .7 %) had a history of abusing their mothers outdoors. (5) The most common cause of mother battering was resentment of and dissatisfaction with the parents. 3) Family environm ent (l) In 10 of the cases, the parents of the patient had severe marital conflicts (2) The family format was usually nuclear and the average num ber of the household was (3) In 13 of the cases(38.2%)，the patients were the only son of the parents. (4) The personality of parents were as follows, in the case of father, self-centered, dogmatic and obstinate: 11(32.4%) ② introverted and weak : 8(23.5%) in the case of mother, introverted and weak cases were common(50% ). (5) In many cases, their mothers had overprotected the patients.