ABSTRACT
The term “Munchausen by proxy” (MBP) is used to describe a caregiver (almost always a mother) who intentionally makes her children sick to gratify her own emotional needs. MBP victims are usually young children who are unable to speak out against the abuse they are suffering, but, as Chapter 2 discusses, vulnerable adults can also be victimized in this way. Chapter 2 explores the history of medical child abuse and its first formal recognition as “MBP” in 1977 by Dr. Roy Meadow in England. Despite the term now being widespread, controversy has swirled around the phenomenon and the terminology, as well as the focus on the perpetrator’s state of mind. Medical child abuse (MCA), of which MBP is one type, is almost certainly the single deadliest form of child abuse. Chapter 2 helps the reader understand the key ways in which MCA is recognized as well as the varying ways in which it can present. Chapter 2 discusses the perpetrators in detail, clarifying the factors that can make a seemingly nurturing mother harm her child. As with all the chapters, this chapter is replete with first-hand accounts; these come from both perpetrators and survivors, highlighting the devastation MCA has not only on a child experiencing the abuse, but on the adult that the child grows up to be.
