Background of The Study

1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of The Study

Violence against children has become a hot topic in the news and social media these past few years. Violence can be done by anyone, but ironically that violence done by our own parents as our closest family members. As an example, many children in the United States suffer from maltreatment, it is estimated that every year between 1 and 3 million children are physically or psychologically abused and that the majority of these children are abused by family members. Children are subjected to verbal abuse; they are starved, beaten, burned out, chained, isolated, left to lie filthy and in their own excrement, or sexually molested, and not a small number are murdered. In 2005, in the United States, more than 1.300 children died as a result of child abuse almost four children every day. The same case happened in Indonesia, like Seto Mulyadi, the National Commission on Child Protection, said that child abuse cases in Indonesia had increased by around 40 to 50 percent per year over the last few years. Last year, the number of reported cases reached 2,300. This year, however, there were 2,000 cases reported in the first six months of the year. Another example of this case was last year, 12-year-old Riri was sent from her village in Central Java to live with her uncle and aunt in Jakarta, the capital. Over a period of four months, she was repeatedly raped by her uncle, who threatened to kill her and possess her with evil spirits if she reported the abuse. He then forced her to become a sex worker. According to the 2 head of the shelter, for two weeks Riri was forced to charge US21 per sexual encounter in East Jakarta, where she is now recovering. After fleeing from her uncle’s house, she happened to rest mid-escape near the home of a local community leader, who brought her to the government-run shelter. Based on the issues above, then there are some negative effects on violence against children. The correlation of childhood trauma and later health concerns has been the subject of a number of studies. Research has found that childhood experiences of abuse contribute to the likelihood of depression, anxiety disorders, addictions, personality disorders, eating disorders, sexual disorders and suicidal behavior. A study by Palmer, Brown, Rae-Grant, Loughin 2001 with 384 survivors of childhood abuse found that survivors of child abuse tended to be depressed, have low-self esteem, and to have problems with family functioning. A recent study found that almost 76 of adults reporting child physical abuse and neglect have at least one psychiatric disorder in their lifetime and nearly 50 have three or more psychiatric disorder. Adults with abuse histories also present with physical problems more frequently than those who have not experienced abuse. Psychology is a scientific discipline that fully struggling with the problems of man and humanity. Psychology is also the science that tries to explain, predict, and control the behavior of human mental. The particular combination of emotional, attitudinal, and behavioral response patterns of an individual is called personality. Personality disorders are a class of mental disorders characterized by enduring maladaptive patterns of behavior, cognition and inner experience, exhibited across many contexts and deviating markedly from those accepted by the individual’s culture. 3 Gleaves, Hernandez, Warner, in Professional Psychology: Research Practice 1999 said Dissociative Identity Disorder, formerly Multiple Personality Disorder remains a highly controversial disorder. The disease theory of Multiple Personality Disorder is that unhappiness in adulthood from trauma in childhood and Spanos in his book Psychological Bulletin 1994 also said the trauma is so severe that the individual creates multiple identities to cope with it. The severe trauma is thought to be a result of physical or sexual abuse in childhood. The diagnostic criteria for this disorder as cited in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental Disorders American Psychiatric Association, 1994, states that an individual displaying at least two personality states in which these personality states take control of the persons behavior can be diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder DID. The individual diagnosed with this disorder tends to be depressed, passive, and often displays feelings of guilt. An individual’s personality is apparently split into two or more distinct sub-personalities, each of which may become dominant at different times. People with multiple personality disorder suffer from internal chaos, roller-coaster emotions and terrible memories. They also present confusing and contradictory images to their family and friends. But in spite of all this, multiple personality disorder is a treatable disorder. Talking about disorder, it is often become the high rates of sexual and physical abuse. After Pope, Olivia, Hudson, Bodkin, and Gruber 1999 surveyed a group of 301 board certified American psychiatrists their results indicated that only 13 of those surveyed felt that Multiple Personality Disorder should be included in the DSM – IV 1994 without hesitation, while the remaining felt that it should only be a proposed diagnosis. 4 I chose this topic as my thesis because abuses on children happened in the novel that I want to discuss. Multiple personality disorder becomes the theme of The Minds of Billy Milligan by Daniel Keyes which is based on true story. William Stanley Milligan or much known as Billy Milligan was born and raised in a family that struggled submarginal survive the economic pressures and cultural liberalism. He was 26 years, didn’t finish high school. He was the main personality of the other 24 personalities. He has became complex personality because his stepfather treated him rudely. What his stepfather had done, it was never known by Billy’s biological mother, Dorothy. Violence which his stepfather did, has made him became afraid of men, especially his stepfather, Chalmer Milligan. William Stanley Milligan 4 years old when he, for the first time, creating a figure of Christene, 3-year-old girl who became friends playing Kathy, brother Billy, William’s nickname. Starting from loneliness due to did not have a friend to play at home: Jim, his brother did not like playing with him, while Kathy was still too small, so he then created Christene earlier figures. Furthermore, as the painful events in his life, the other characters begin to be present. Until Billy adulthood. The novel also tell about conflicts that resulted from his other personalities Adalana, who raped three girls from Ohio State University OSU which made Milligan fell injail. Novel and other literary works are no longer discussing about social life, romance, or just entertainment only. Now, novels discuss more serious topic, such as psychology. Therefore, the reader does not need to buy psychology books. Through the novel, the reader can learn and understand the cases of psychology in the easiest way. 5 Done Dinkmeyer in Child Development 1965 said that psychologists, educators, and sociologists all agree that the family is the most significant single influence on the development of the child. The family is the major environmental influence and remains throughout life the most persuasive of all influences. It is in the family that the child either learns to trust people or to be fearful and uncertain of others. The family has a most significant role to play in the development of personality. Most of early social learning is experienced within the family. Grace Craig in Human Development Fourth Edition 1986 said that instead of encouraging and reinforcing the unique, intimate bond between parent and child, the child abuser destroys the expectations of love, trust, and dependence so essential to the young child. What constitutes child abuse may depend on the social milieu and community standards of a particular family. Although much of the damage suffered by children is due to carelessness or look supervision, the results can be just as tragic as those of intentional abuse. There is some opinion by The Washington Post Book World shows that novel has the meaning and the purpose of the novel, from book itself: “Daniel Keyes has been carrying out this novel brilliantly, by making this novel not only clear and accurate, but also exudes a special warmth and empathy for the victims mental state and failure.”

1.2 Problem of The Study