Healing the incest wound

Incest was discovered as an unexpectedly common life event and the source of severe emotional distress in girls and women by Freud and his contemporaries, who later renounced this view and relegated incest to the status of childhood wish and fantasy. The reality of incest and its impact were re-discovered in the 1970s and 80s by feminists and associated social scientists who investigated and substantiated its occurrence, prevalence, and the primary family dynamics involved. In the decades since, incest has again gone underground, but in a different way. It has been subsumed under generic terms such as “child maltreatment” and “childhood sexual abuse,” even though most child sexual abuse is incestuous, meaning that it is perpetrated by someone related to or in relationship with the victim. Recent research has identified yet another form, when parents exploit their own children for money, subsumed under the term “sex trafficking.”  This language muting and incorrect terminology has the effect of obscuring both the prevalence of incest and the betrayal and relational dynamics that are involved and that place a high burden on victims.

These dynamics also play out in the responses that incest survivors receive when they disclose the abuse, or it is otherwise discovered. Disclosure trauma occurs when victims are responded to with disbelief, dismissal, contempt, or worse and when professionals and organizations do not provide appropriate intervention and protection. Recently, an unconscionable additional burden has been placed on incest victims by the reversal of Roe v Wade, where no exceptions are allowed in cases of rape or incest. This constitutes societal betrayal, adding yet another layer of burden on the pregnant incest victim. All these dynamics are necessary to understand and address in a comprehensive response and treatment.

This recording emphasizes the betrayal-trauma inherent in incest and the disorganized attachment dynamics that are likely at play in the incestuous family. Without effective intervention, these can have a lifetime impact on the victim and on the entire family. An overview of the consequences associated with this form of sexual abuse will be discussed to include the more recent types of societal betrayals and their implications. The rationale for a relational and attachment-based treatment with great attention to betrayal dynamics will be presented. The need for social action and pushback regarding abortion availability is evident if impregnated incest victims are to receive social justice.