__ / \ /____\ .________/][][][\_______. \__________ __________/ ! / /!/ //!\ \! __!_\ ! / /_/ // \\ \ \_____ / __ // /\ \\ \_____ \ / / / // ____ \\ \____\ \ /_/ /_//_/ \_\\_\______\ T-File_14____November_18_2005 Mankind's Silent Consent of Incest By Emoticon _______________________________________________________________________________________ Incest, which we will define as sexual activity between a parent and a child, has \ plagued and fascinated mankind since before we began to write, yet remains a quagmire | of intellectual uncertainty, at the expense of its victims. Conservative estimates by | the American Humane Society place the number of sexually molested children in the | United States to be at least 80,000 to 100,000 each year, with at least 25 percent of | the perpetrators directly related to the victims (Herman; Hirschman 1). In fact, the | occurrence of incest is likely even more common than statistics based on reported abuse | would have you believe, as societal taboo (which exists in every known human society), | among other forces, provides a heavy incentive to keep such incidents secret. This is | not to say that incest is commonplace, but for it to occur on the scale that it does, | which we may never accurately gauge, is still quite significant. Despite the | perceived, virtually universal, taboo on incest, our societal failure to adequately | address the issue is a form of silent, and largely subconscious, consent. < The stigma regarding incest is understood quite differently by males and females in | our entirely patriarchal world. This interpretational difference is often said to | account for the overwhelming majority of known incest cases occurring between the | father and daughter. < One popular anthropological explanation of incest's place in the human condition is | that it arises to keep competition between men over women at bay. This explanation is | central to the work of Sigmund Freud. < A boy is taught (perhaps not explicitly) that his mother is property of his father, | and instead of violating his father's property through the realization of his sexual | desires with his mother, he should instead find woman of his own to be his property. | Conversely, a girl learns that her mother is the property of her father, and the girl | has only the option to find a man similar her father to whom she can give herself. The | incentive of a boy to understand the taboo of incest is much greater, for it is | enforced by the fear of his father. On the female side, however, the incentive is not | as clearly defined as the psychological reinforcement (fear of her father) is not | there. Furthermore, when a man has children of his own, there is no father figure to | impress upon him the taboo of incest between himself and his children. In essence, | anthropologically speaking, this understanding of acceptable sexual behavior would | imply that the least discouraged deviant interfamily relationship is between a father | and his daughter (Herman; Hirschman 4). < It is important to keep in mind that this predisposition, buried deep in the human | condition, is not a claim of commonly practiced or accepted father-daughter relations | in any society, but rather an explanation of why this particular relationship dominates | known incest cases. The known cases upon which all current statistics are based are | likely a very poor sample of the actual situation, but, among them, such a staggering | number of victims are the daughters of abusive fathers (Herman; Hirschman 8) that is | highly unlikely that this general trend does not hold true. < The silent consent of incest as an intellectual topic is not as overt as total | disregard for the issue in the scientific community, in fact, quite a lot of research | has been done on the issue. However, respectable case studies have only been conducted | since the latter half of the twentieth century, and then few and far between. Even | Sigmund Freud, whose studies changed the field of psychology forever, did not approach | his incest victim patients without prejudice. After hearing so many nearly identical | claims of woman that their fathers had abused them, Freud came to the conclusion, based | upon his unwillingness to accept such activities as being so prevalent in the | respectable families of his patients, that the claims were a manifestation of an | infantile neurosis in the women (Herman; Hirschman 4). < Freud's denial of the issue is certainly not an isolated occurrence, but reflective | of that of society et al. If a renowned psychologist, upon whose research modern | psychology is greatly based, cannot properly approach the issue in practice, then what | hope is there for anyone else? < No one likes to discuss incest for the very reason that most people do not engage | in it willfully. This is where the taboo of incest, which protects most people from | such fate, works against those who were victimized. The issue is so deeply embedded in | the human mind, that even when it is discussed, it is not done so without preconception,| even, or perhaps especially, among respected researchers. < This denial unrelentingly corrupts researchers' data in the field. Incest research | has a history of finding results which are clearly skewed in some way by the | researcher's perspective. For instance, a British study of incest in Ireland showed a | four percent occurrence in their sample of the population. The report accompanying the | data concluded that this was a cultural, and not a psychological phenomena (Herman; | Hirschman 4). This was a clear case of denial on behalf o the British researchers, and | an attempt to isolate themselves from those involved in such an unspeakable affair. < Furthermore, the study of the effects of incest on its victims is also quite mired | by some clearly ridiculous claims. One surprisingly common notion is the virtually | unsubstantiated assertion that incest victims are not harmed by their experiences. | Taken a step further, a notably blatant disregard for a quite certain demonstration of | incest's psychological effects was a study which concluded that “70 percent of victims | showed ... disturbed personality development,” yet no clear correlation between incest | and such psychologically damaging effects was admitted to exist (Herman; Hirschman 4). | Recently, however, it has become more generally accepted that incest can be | attributed as a cause for poor self esteem and depression (Morrow; Sorell 1). A link | to sexual promiscuity and prostitution among victims later in life is also currently | accepted in the field (Morrow; Sorell 1). < In a recent survey of over 1,000 people, it was concluded conservatively that 2 to | 3 percent were incest victims (Herman; Hirschman 10). A subsequent case study of | fifteen victimized women obliterated previously accepted assertions that such activity | was more common among the lower economic and social class, when in fact seven of the | victims were white collar workers or professionals who led otherwise quite ordinary | lives (Herman; Hirschman 9). This brings up again the issue of how inaccurate current | statistics may be if the victims, often at one point in their lives' committed to | secrecy, do not demographically fit into an easily identifiable mold. This lack of | knowledge about the victims emboldens the idea of mankind's silent consent of incest. | Of that case study's same sample of fifteen women abused by their fathers, only two | successfully sought court or child-protection intervention (Herman; Hirschman 10), and | the most common duration of the sexual relationships was five to six years. | While apparent progress in addressing the issue of incest is being made, human | nature makes incest quite a difficult area to research with any degree of | conclusiveness. Victims are reluctant or unwilling to seek help, which aids the | perpetrators of such acts, for whatever reason, be it fear, the societal stigma of | being involved in incest in any way, a learned feeling of helplessness and isolation, | or anything else. | Perhaps what is so ironic about the tragedy of incest is that the very taboo which | effectively discourages so many from being involved thoroughly complicates the plight | of the few unfortunate victims. Sadly, with such a polarized populus (everyone either | has nothing to do with incest or their entire psyche thoroughly jilted by its damaging | effects) the empathy and understanding necessary to properly address the issue may | never manifest itself, which is to say that mankind, through its flawed human condition,| silently, and subconsciously, consents of incest. | _______________________________________________________________________________________/ __________/ Works Cited \______________________________________________________________ Herman, Judith; Hirschman, Lisa. “Father-Daughter Incest.” Signs, Vol. 2, No. 4. \ (1977): 735-756. | Morrow, Brent K.; Sorell, Gwendolyn T. “Factors Affecting Self-Esteem, Depression, and | Negative Behaviors in Sexually Abused Female Adolescents.” Journal of Marriage and | the Family, Vol. 51, No. 3. (1989): 677-686. | _______________________________________________________________________________________/