• Breathing Exercise
• Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Comments on Szasz' Myth of Mental Illness
• Definition: Child Sexual Abuse
• Definition: Emotional Abuse
• Definition: Physical Abuse
• Definition: Professional Abuse
• Definition: Sexual Assault
• Definition: Spiritual Abuse
• Definition: Spousal Abuse
• Dissociation
• Finding Support
• Finding a Therapist
• Freud's "Etiology of Hysteria" and Present Research on Child Sexual Abuse
• Incest and Adult Sexual Functioning
• Incest: Family Profiles and Profiles and Psychological Implications
• Leaving Jehovah's Witnesses - Personal Experience
• Memory
• Mind Control Techniques and Jehovah's Witnesses
• Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD): Multiple Selves and Structural Interactionism
• Needs Assessment for Adult Survivors of Incest (Montreal, Canada)
• Physical Child Abuse: Self Perceptions -- Research
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: Criteria
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Symptoms
• Psychic Out-of-Body Experiences and Traumatic Out-of-Body Experiences in Childhood: Similarities and Differences
• Relationships
• Relaxation Exercise
• Self-Reflection
• Social Death: The Practice of  Disfellowshipping Among Jehovah's Witnesses
• Suggested Book List
• The Issue of Consent
  
• Til Death Do Us Part
  
• Traumatic Child Sexual Abuse, Psychological  Death and the Reduction in the Belief in the Power of God
• Traumatic Memory
  
• Virginia Woolf: Incest and its Effects on her Life

This paper will be a brief analysis of the research on incest, It will deal with the profiles of the fathers mother and daughter, NOTE* Due to the fact that most studies have found that female victims greatly out-number male victims by about 7-1. I will refer to the victims as ‘she’. (1) Research has yet to determine if the effects are the same for boys.

Incest has been found to be widespread throughout our society, The psychological damage done to the child is viewed by some professionals to be irreparable.  Many victims may never recover from the experience.  Fortunately many do recover.

There have been numerous studies to date that look at the family and attempt to learn why incest occurs.  Blame has been placed on the father in some studies and on the mother in other studies.  Until now however little research has been done on the treatment given to the victims and how effective it is - what types of therapy will benefit her the most. Repeatedly, I have heard and read victims stating that the professionals did not know how to help them.  They were treated for a great variety of psychological disorders and most professionals had difficulty even to discuss the subject. Clearly more research needs to be done and more professionals need to be sensitized to this issue.

…any overtly sexual contact between people who either are closely related or perceive themselves to be closely related (including stepparents. step siblings, half siblings and even liven lovers if they have assumed a parental role. (2)

as any sexual touch. by forces trickery, or bribery, between two people where there it an imbalance in age, size, power, or knowledge. (3)

INCIDENCE
Various sides estimate that up to one out of every four girls and one out of every ten boys in the United States is a victim of sexual abuse before the age of 18.  According to one study 38% of these attacks are incestuous.  That means that one out of every ten girls was abused in her own home or by people she knew and trusted. (5)

The National Center for Child Abuse and Neglect estimates that between 40,000 and 60,000 children are sexually abused by their parents or caretakers each year. (6)

THE FATHER
Contrary to most opinion most of the men who sexually abuse their daughters are not initially seeking a sexual relationship. Usually the father has been emotionally cut off from the mother of the family. He then turns to his young daughter who is more than eager to give and receive some emotional attention from him., It may be his lack of control over his sexual desires that motivate him to approach his daughter in an inappropriate way, Susan Forward states:

Aggressors woo use sex with their young daughters as a vain attempt to satisfy a variety of emotional needs -- needs that that they are not able to understand that they have no way of knowing how to meet appropriately. (7)

THE MOTHER
One theory states that the mother of the family is partly responsible for the incest.  Some mothers know about the sexual relationship between her husband and her daughter and this theory states that she may be relieved that she does not have to provide sexual services to her husband. Other mothers participate on an unconscious level, She may ignore the signs that something is wrong with her daughter and she may fear the consequences of asking questions. Both these types are labeled 'The Silent Partner'. Susan Forward states:

Typically, the silent partner is unable to maintain any sort of nurturing, affectionate relationship with either her husband or her daughter  This emotional abandonment of the family often causes the husband and the daughter to seek emotional refuge with each other… What sets the silent partner apart is her tendency to deal with her problems by passing them along to her daughter. (8)

THE DAUGHTER.
Many people wonder why the daughter participates in this relationship if she dislikes it so much.  People seem to forget that the daughter is not a woman who has the ability to make her own choices and say 'NO'.  She is a young girl (sometimes too young even to talk, who does not understand what is happening. Her father is her guardian. He is her protector. He provides her food, shelter, and clothing.  He is supposed to guide and help her. He is supposed to care for her and love her. She is totally dependent and trusts this adult in her life.  It is the most natural thing for her to obey her father.  It is not until she begins to understand the significance of their 'game' or until she is old enough to realize that it is wrong or until she has been physically hurt that she wants it to stop. But she is powerless. Her father's threats, her mother's distance and her own fears force her to continue and to remain silent.

As a result of her inability to stop the incest and her continued participation, the victim develops many coping strategies and psychological disturbances.

According to one Montreal study the list of long term effects is long and debilitating  

Many of the women that I have known who are victims display all or some of these problems. Most of the women have had severe problems relating to both of their parents and have found it difficult to trust people, especially men.  Some of the women had tried many times to kill  themselves some have been hospitalized numerous times for psychological problems and one has been institutionalized for about 15 years.

Of these women there are only two who have become survivors.  A "Survivor" is a person who no longer allows the incest and past to control her life but has been able to deal with the inner conflicts that have resulted from the incest and has begun to live in a way where she is control and has learned to trust someone. It seems that unless she is able to establish a trusting relationship with another person she is doomed to repeat the cycle of abuse.

Much needs to be done to assist victims of incest in, their recovery.  More information is required to better understand how to help.  It would be advisable to have special programs where victims can go to meet others who have shared the tame experiences.  Self-help programs need to be established.  It is only by listening to the victims that any of us will learn to understand the tremendous toll incest sakes on the lives of these women.  It is only by listening that we will learn how to help.