CHILDREN NOT SEVERELY DAMAGED BY INCEST WITH A PARENT

Abstract

Often referrals to child guidance clinics are made by courts when they suspect that a child has been subjected to incest by a parent; in most cases it has been found that the children were seriously affected by incestual relations with either parent. More often than not these children show defects in their ego functioning. Apparently in our culture the incest taboo is so strong that when parent-child incest occurs, it is psychologically traumatic to the child involved in the act; therefore, it is not surprising to find that either boys or girls may become psychotic after they have had incestual relations. A study by Fleck et al. (1959) on the intrafamilial environment of the schizophrenic patient provides evidence that parent-child incestual acts and fantasies playa much greater role in the development of schizophrenia than had hitherto been assumed. Rascovsky and Rascovsky (1950) reported that it was common to find family disorganization, alcoholism, depression, and sexual maladjustment between parents in the families where incest was consummated between father and daughter. Usually the child escaped into homosexuality as a characteristic outcome of incestuous relations. In cases of father-daughter incest, the psychopathology of the daughters ranged from severe personality disorder and sexual maladjustment to manifest psychosis. In the cases of mother-son incest, the sons, according to various reports, were found to be seriously emotionally disturbed. Wahl (1960)