Marie-Noëlle Tardy is a child psychiatrist. A former Maternal-and-Child-Welfare physician, she has extensive experience working with abused children and with abusive families. She was educated in Switzerland, where she studied forensics and a multidisciplinary approach to abuse, incorporating the law, the police and psychiatry.

Unfortunately, child abuse is hardly a new subject, but its complex reality has evolved with society. And although the incidence of physical violence has tended to drop to some extent, new forms of mental abuse have developed: harassment on social networks and at school, manipulative relations in sects, and, particularly, abuse within the family unit (often the result of hostile divorces or of relationships that seem impossible to escape).
Using a systematic approach that covers all the questions (Who? How? Why? What to do?), and in association with a methodical approach to abuse, the author offers guidelines to identify the psychological behaviour of toxic personalities, and the tactics of abuse, manipulation and perversity. She also shows how to identify types of aggression (from minor to increasingly serious) and the effects on victims.
Understanding is crucial in order to know what to say and to dare to speak out, instead of fantasising or denying. We need to understand the mechanisms of abuse to prevent its occurrence, identify it and act when it does occur. These are the issues the author deals with here, while stressing that protecting children hinges on information.

• The clinical case studies described here illustrate different types of abusive situations.
• Information on abuse and abusive relationships is often concealed.
• The author shows how to deal with violence and abuse, both psychologically and legally.