Allégation d'abus sexuels chez les enfants de moins de quatre ans : interactions mère–enfant et approche clinique

Abstract

The mediatisation of sexual abuses strengthened a representation of the childhood pure and exempt from any track of the sexual. The slightest demonstration of infantile sexuality is henceforth subjected to the dramatization and to the quasi-systematic interpretation on the register of (the) sexual abuse. Except it is to forget that the first interactions and (the first) body care are the first experiences of child's sensualism and that they can be the cradle of experiences of excitement, sometimes overflowing, if the adult, hurt by his own life's experiences, does not manage to calm them. In this context, the situations carrying the naming of "suspicions of sexual abuse" multiply and confront the professionals with the delicate exercise of evaluation, sensitive work as the children are young and as the assertion is carried by the parental speech. We suggest passing on certain number of reflections stemming from our clinical experience within a paediatric hospital welcoming frequently children presumed victims of sexual abuse. From the results of a research made with 51 children of less than 4 years old, we shall be interested more particularly in the place of the first interactions in this context of assertion of sexual abuse and we shall envisage essential elements to be examined within the framework of a first consultation of evaluation. The collaboration between psychologists of different services was able to be achieved thanks to the spirit developed by the team of the psychologists of this hospital.