Objectives. - The link parent-child is central in the construction of the young subject. This link can be put in distress when the adult suffers from psychiatric disorders and become toxic. This article proposes a reflection on the impacts of adult's serious psychological troubles on the child and a discussion about the existing tension between psychiatric care for the parent and the measures of help and protection towards the child. Method. - To try to define all the elements of answer, the authors lean on their experience in a multidisciplinary team compound of social workers, psychologists, a jurist and doctors (pediatrician and child psychiatrist) asked for 30 years to realize the diagnostic and therapeutic care of situations of ill-treatments of children and teenagers. We met different situations involving parents and children within the framework of our process of multidisciplinary evaluation. We also base ourselves on a work of network, discussing with our colleagues in charge of the therapeutic support of the adult patients. Results. - The processes of evaluation between the looks of the professionals close to the child and those who meet the parents in their adult's suffering allowed to seize all the relevance to go out of an simplistic reading to understand the ins and outs which led to ill treatment. Discussion. - In spite, of the concern of the respect for every protagonist concerned in a holistic understanding of his course of life, we are confronted with the limits of our mission, on one hand, and what bases the therapeutic link on the other hand. It is so, for example, that the question of the shared professional secretly represents a stumbling block which can affect the process of evaluation and support in his purpose. Conclusion. - The clinical experience and the theoretical reflections confirm the interest of a complex multidisciplinary work, integrating the contributions of the visions of the professional asked to estimate and to accompany, on one hand, the child, and on the other hand, the parent. (C) 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.