In a research project evaluating four populations, visual analogue scales were used to determine the frequency and severity of physical abuse, physical neglect, verbal abuse, emotional neglect, and sexual abuse. The children, their parents and the staff treating the clinical populations provided similar estimates of the extent of abuse. It was found that mothers abused their children and their husbands abused them in many ways as they were abused by their parents. The concept of entropy applied to humans appears to fit the data and to explain why people seem determined to reenact their conflicted childhood. They need to understand what happened to them in order to prevent reenactment of past experience.