Am J Psychiatry 1988; 145:989-992
Copyright © 1988 by American Psychiatric Association
Preschool children's erroneous allegations of sexual molestation
A Yates and T Musty
Department of Psychiatry, University of Arizona, Tucson 85724.
Occasionally, a preschool child may erroneously accuse a parent of
molestation. When this occurs, the child usually believes that his or her
story is correct. A false accusation can be made when an adult has
persuaded a child that the sexual events actually occurred, when a child in
the oedipal stage has misinterpreted caregiving ministrations, when a
child's thought processes are confused by primary process material, or when
a child is secondarily involved in the projective identifications of a
dominant caregiver. More than one of these mechanisms may operate in a
given case.
