ABSTRACT
We have already seen that equivocal abuse frequently features a mother and sometimes a generational presentation with the maternal grandmother also playing a part. e breakdown of the marriage and its stressors become the cauldron within which incipient psychopathology can come to control perceiving, thinking, feeling, and the actions that follow. It is our contention that category mistakes and false belief systems can occur without necessarily involving underlying personal pathology. e studies of cults and the distortions observed in hostages make it clear that normal range functioning can still be disrupted by unique constellations of environmental factors (Dawson, 2003; De Fabrique, Van Hasselt, Vecchi, & Romano, 2007; Namnyak, Tu§on, Szedely, Worboys, & Sampson, 2008; Robbins, 2002; Ungerleider & Wellisch, 1979). However, the cases that are most diªcult to resolve o§en involve a combination of malevolent factors in both the external world and in the individual. Cases of this sort could perhaps be denoted as “perfect storm” situations.
