Sexual buse is the use of a child with deficient psychosocial development by an adult for sexual stimulation. It includes elements such as touching the genital areas, sexual intercourse, forcing to be together with threats. 
 
Abuse is a serious problem that causes deep wounds in the child's psyche and requires rapid intervention. They have difficulty in perceiving and realising the situation they are experiencing. Especially if the family has not raised awareness about it and the family is involved in the abuse, the child tries to make sense of it in their own world. In general, their way of thinking is; fathers/brothers like this, no one will believe if I tell, I have to do this, he/she may kill my mother/sister... 

 
Because of such thoughts, they may remain silent, withdraw into themselves and have difficulty in expressing themselves. Children who are victims of abuse undergo a physical and psychological change even if they do not express what they have experienced. This change can be recognised by the family and teacher. The games that children prefer and the pictures they draw shed light on the way of understanding. Physical changes may include bruising, bleeding, incontinence, body aches, pregnancy, weight gain or loss. Psychological changes may include sleep disturbance, lack of interest in anything, depression, fear, anxiety, sexual orientation and PTSD. Sensitisation and education should be a priority in order to ensure the safety of children and to take precautions against the dangers they may experience. This increases children's awareness, facilitates their expression, motivates them and makes them conscious. It should be a priority for parents to observe and spend time with their children. 
 
 

 
Child neglect and abuse can leave lasting effects on children's mental health. Such traumatic experiences can affect children's emotional, cognitive and social development. 
When children are neglected or abused, it often damages their sense of trust. Children may develop insecure attachment patterns due to these negative experiences. A secure attachment supports the ability to establish and maintain healthy social relationships; however, these skills may be negatively affected in cases of neglect and abuse. 
 
Emotionally neglected or abused children may experience emotional regulation problems. This may cause emotional problems such as depression, anxiety and anger problems. In addition, the impact of traumatic experiences on the child's self-perception may negatively affect self-esteem and identity development. 

Situations where children are exposed to neglect and abuse can also have profound effects on the stress response. The brain's stress coping mechanisms may be affected in children exposed to such traumatic experiences, which may lead to difficulties in coping with stress later in life. In conclusion, child neglect and abuse is a problem that can have serious effects not only on physical health but also on mental health. Therefore, recognising these situations, providing support to children and providing the necessary professional intervention are critical for children to develop in a healthy way and overcome the trauma they have experienced.  

REFERENCE:

Dinleyici M. Çocuk ihmali ve istismarı. Çarman KB, editör. Gelişimsel Nöroloji. 1. Baskı. Ankara: Türkiye Klinikleri; 2022. p.51-7 

KARATAŞ, K. (2015). Çocuk İhmal ve İstismarında Sosyal Hizmet Yaklaşımı. Çocuğa Yönelik Şiddet ve Çocuğun Korunması içinde. Ed.: T. Dağlı. İstanbul: Çocuk Koruma Merkezlerini Destekleme Derneği, s. 97-105. 

Y 

In the process of making a decision, it is common to be unable to make a choice, to stay between many options. The main reasons for this difficulty in decision-making may include personality, emotions and development. It may include pathological levels of indecision. Reasons such as feeling of inadequacy, anxiety about making a mistake and anxiety in the face of uncertainty are among the factors that cause difficulty in the decision-making process. In the foreground, it is frequently encountered in people who lack self-confidence, and this situation begins to limit and hinder the individual's movements. Indecision may be related to perfectionism. The fear of not being able to finish a job at the level of perfection desired by the individual causes anxiety and thus indecision. This situation is quite common in individuals whose childhood is spent in a protective and controlling family. Not giving the child the right to choose can make it difficult for him/her to express his/her feelings and wishes. The child's inability to express what he/she likes and dislikes and what he/she needs may lead to the development of dependency on his/her parents over time. These children may wish for a lonely, irresponsible and uncritical life in adolescence. Individuals who cannot find shelter in social life and have difficulty in fitting into society tend to have extreme and repetitive thoughts in case of uncertainty. Individuals may fall into doubt and obsessive thoughts at the moment of decision-making. Mood is another important factor in decision-making. For example, an individual who is prone to depressive mood may not want to take risks and think about the future. Consequently, making decisions becomes a great burden for these people.  

Decision-making is a skill that every person has, but this decision-making process is influenced by many factors. It is important because of its difficulty, multidimensionality, responsibility and consequences. One has to make a choice in one's favour and the consequences may be logical or irrational. In our decisions in this choice, when time constraints, risk and uncertainty increase, emotional decisions override logical ones and the environment in which the person exists greatly affects the decision. Making the right and logical decision depends on the stages.   

• What is the problem? :  Problems are situations that prevent the achievement of the goal. It is necessary to recognise the problem, to examine it from many aspects, to draw its boundaries.  
• To learn the origin of the problem: Information, sources and opinions related to the problem or situation should be learnt. Research should be done on why the problem is happening and it should be thought about. A relationship can be established within the information we have obtained here.
•  Analysing and interpreting the information: The information should be grouped together and the information that is not important should be separated. By analysing the information we have obtained, we should try to find the solution to the problem. 
• Selection of a useful solution: Many different alternatives may arise in solving the problem and the most efficient one should be selected.   
• Implementation of the decision: The person should be ready to implement the decision.
• Evaluation of the decision: The decision is analysed to see whether it is efficient or not.  

Regardless of the type of decision or the type of strategy applied, in order to make correct and effective decisions, it is necessary to recognise the decision-making process well, to follow the decision-making processes and to draw conclusions with them. When considering the psychological effects of the decision-making process, the stress, conflict, indecision, dilemma, emotional commitment, social pressure and other effects experienced by individuals emphasise the complexity of decision-making. These influences can occur at every stage of the decision-making process and cause people to show various reactions at emotional, cognitive and behavioural levels. In addition, in the process after decisions are made, individuals may question the correctness of their decisions and face the processes of coping with and evaluating the consequences they experience. At this point, individuals' experiences and learnings can help them manage their future decision-making processes more consciously and effectively.  

REFERENCE

Appel, H., Englich, B., & Burghardt, J. (2021). "I Know What I Like"-Indecisiveness Is Unrelated to Behavioural Indicators of Evaluation Difficulties. Frontiers in psychology, 4042.  

 Yönetim Süreçleri Bağlamında Bilgievlerinin İncelenmesi: Küçükçekmece Belediyesi Örneği, Erdi Demir, 2019, Yüksek Lisans Tezi  

Do you remember the last dream you had? Maybe it was beautiful and reflected your dream, maybe it was bad and you would never want to experience it, or maybe it was an irrelevant dream. These possibilities are predictions that will happen if you remember them. Except for people with brain damage, everyone has dreams, but not everyone remembers them. Dreams occur during REM sleep. Sometimes you also dream in non-REM sleep, but these dreams are not vivid and not easily remembered. We can recognise that a person is dreaming by the rapid movement of the eyes of the sleeper, even though the eyes are closed. At this time, although his body is completely unresponsive and largely paralysed, the EEG of his brain will be almost the same as when he is awake. If you wake the person up at this moment, there is a high probability that they will remember the dream. Most dreams last between 5 and 20 minutes. And none of them occupy any part of the brain. We don't realise how illogical our dream is until we wake up because during REM sleep, there is less activity in our prefrontal cortex. When this area is less active, we are unable to recognise the illogical events in our dreams.  

There are countless theories as to why we dream. Dreams have been regarded as an unsolved mystery for centuries and have been the field of interest of many scientists and psychologists. The most important research in this field has been the work of Frued, a famous psychoanalysist. Freud argues that dreams are a reflection of our subconscious. If we explain it in detail, it means that it is the uncensored expression of every emotion that is suppressed in our subconscious while we are awake. According to evolutionary psychologists, they stated that dreams are a messenger and provide us with foresight against the threats in our lives. Other evolutionary psychologists say that dreams are part of neural development and do not mean anything. As a result, many theories have been explained about why we dream.   

Whether dreams have meaning or not varies according to different perspectives. According to some views, it is a meaningless, disconnected series of events and that it has no meaning, and according to some, the events we experience during the day, our thoughts and memories in our brain, so it has meaning, is among the theories.   

If we use the theory that dreams have a meaning and need to be interpreted, it is among the information that will contribute to us in psychotherapy. The therapist listens to the client's dreams, tries to make sense of the client's interpretation of the dream, and makes a connection with reality. Thus, by looking at how the client interprets and thinks, the therapy process is progressed by revealing the underlying concerns and fears.  

When we want to examine dream interpretations, Freud's thoughts come to the fore. For example, associating going up and down stairs in a dream with sexual intercourse; seeing the walls as male and the rooms as female, likening the small animals seen in the dream to a sibling; unwanted sibling, going on a journey; seeing death and the fear of it, seeing a king or queen; the relationship between the mother and father who are the authority and the fear felt against them, seeing water; birth, mother-child relationship and memories of childhood, areas such as locked, basement or underground; avoiding or looking for someone, dying in the dream; living, seeing crowds; he thinks that it represents loneliness.   

 When we make a general approach to dreams, we see that they consist of subconscious and unconscious states. Our thoughts, memories, wishes, fears and desires about our past, present and future include the whole of the dream. 

REFERENCE

Claudia Picard-Deland C, et al., (2023) The memory sources of dreams: serial awakenings across sleep stages and time of night. Sleep, 1–13, 

Rüyaların Dili: Psikolojide Rüya Çalışmaları, Türk Psikoloji Yazıları, Aralık, C.18 (36), s. 15-25 

In 1974, Mary Ainsworth, Silvia Bell and Donelda Stayton conducted studies evaluating the mother's behaviours in terms of sensitivity-insensitivity, acceptance-rejection, cooperation-conflict, and availability-availability and relating them to the secure-insecure attachment behaviour of the infant. In the study, it was concluded that the degree of sensitivity of the mother was the main variable; the degree of acceptance, co-operation and accessibility of sensitive mothers was also high, while the degree of sensitivity of rejecting, conflicting and uncaring mothers was low. This led to the judgement that there were emotionally immature parents. To explain in more detail, emotionally immature parents can be explained as trying to maintain the environment they live in, albeit unintentionally, by attributing the unhappiness, distress and the intensity of emotion-state caused by childhood trauma to the child. For example, parents who were not provided with a speaking environment in their childhood, when they try to express themselves, it is seen as a great shame and reacted to, may cause them to refrain from expressing their feelings in their later life and they may try to make them feel the situation they feel without saying it. They may make their own child experience the same event without realising how they were treated. Like reincarnation, it can continue to increase over generations.  

There are four types of emotionally immature parents; emotional, ambitious, passive and rejecting.   

Emotional parents can be childish. They cannot control their emotions, they can switch to all emotions and they may want their children to experience and realise this. Daily life in the family changes according to these moods and psychological disorders are located next to these changing moods and they may not like to be told about it and may escape. In order to prevent this from happening, children hold back and most likely do not express their opinions. As a result, they continue their lives as a child who submits to everyone. "What would I do without you, I don't want to live without you" is the best sentence to describe it.  

Ambitious parents care a lot about their children and strive for their future lives. They constantly control and intervene and want to have their own way, they are not interested in anything else. As a result, their children become depressed, unmotivated, caring about the opinions of others and dependent on others. "If you don't do this, you will never see us again, we want your well-being, do you know better than us." is the best sentence to describe it.  

Passive parents do not interfere in their children's lives, they do not draw a line to guide them, they want them to progress themselves. They are in the background, docile and more endearing than other types of parents. They are fun, they know how to enjoy themselves and they prioritise this enjoyment above everything else. They have no protective instinct, they are likely to abandon the family and let them down. Children of parents with this behaviour make excuses for abandonment and try to think that all the behaviour of the other person is well-intentioned. "If we give the child attention, he will be spoilt and then he will never take us as parents, that's the right thing to do." is the best sentence to describe this behaviour.  

Parents who are rejecting are strict. They have little sense of empathy. They manage the family according to their own wishes and tastes and control their lives. What they say is what happens. The rate of scolding and swearing is high in a situation they do not want. Children of parents with this behaviour think that they are a burden to everyone, they are annoying and intolerable. They are shy and have difficulty talking to other people. "You can't do anything, look what I put up with for you, look at what you do." is the best sentence to describe it.  

The children of emotionally immature parents, who have not grown up, feel the need to be around them all the time and their expectations last a lifetime because they cannot fulfil their emotional needs such as attention, care and being valued, thinking that they will surely get this one day. Even after their parents die, they talk to them in their minds and feel connected to them. We can say that the way of thinking of these emotionally immature parents is fixed and focussed on a single event. Their own thoughts are more important than anything else, and they don't even want to listen to thoughts that contradict them, which shows that they lack empathy. They may not care about anything around them and may be self-centred. Attention is very important for them, they are likely to love attracting attention. They can always keep the past in the front, constantly bring it to the agenda and create events. They enjoy being restless in a way. When we say why immature parents exist, what is the underlying reason for these behaviours, it is enough to look at the big picture. The result of these behaviours is to take part in the same behaviours. It is a kind of reincarnation. The unhappiness and troubles experienced lead to childhood trauma, and even if they do not want to, they reflect it to their children without realising it, and this phenomenon increases in each generation.  

REFERENCE: Adult Children of Immature Parents / Author: Lindsay C. Gibson, Translator: Dilek Boyraz, Publisher: Sola  

Othello syndrome is named after the main character in William Shakespeare's "Othello". It was first defined in the 1950s and continues to be used with the same name today. Othello Syndrome, called the advanced dimension of jealousy, is linked to the fear of losing what one has. It can often occur as a result of other psychological disorders. For example, anxiety, schizophrenia, dementia and personality disorders.  

The main symptoms are being jealous of their partner from everything and everyone, believing in scenarios in their head, making a habit of breaking up, overreacting to any event, exhibiting sceptical attitudes, trying to secretly examine the personal belongings of the person they are in a relationship with such as mobile phones and computers, showing aggression and violent tendencies. This syndrome is more common in men with a rate of 60%. Men and women react differently to jealousy. Men who experience extreme jealousy are more likely to use violence than women and are more likely to hurt or kill with their hands rather than any object. Women, on the other hand, are more likely to use an object or a cutting instrument when committing violence. Men focus on the status and financial situation of the person they feel threatened by. Women, on the other hand, are more jealous of the young appearance and physical attractiveness of the person they are jealous of. In addition, while the most important betrayal for men is sexual, for women it is emotional betrayal. They may resort to use violence to stop this infidelity, and if it continues despite violence, they may resort to suicide as a threat. In a relationship with this exaggerated jealousy, the penalty for infidelity is ultimately spousal homicide. Unless self-protection is involved, women are much less likely to kill.   

Othello syndrome, one of the psychological disorders, may be the reason for the recent increase in femicides. In conclusion, this syndrome is a dangerous disorder that can lead to serious and life-threatening consequences. The person feels unhappy, sad and insignificant, wants to take control, restricts his/her partner, interferes in everything and ruins both his/her life and the life of his/her partner. He/she states that he/she is jealous because he/she loves his/her partner and that the cause of jealousy is external factors. Because of these thoughts, they do not realise that this is a disease and do not want to receive psychological and psychiatric treatment. Even if people with this syndrome are told that their thoughts and behaviours towards their partners are not normal, they never accept this. Therefore, it is very important to support the person with the syndrome during treatment.