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                               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.                                        |
_______________________________________________________________________________________/

