Uncanny Guilt of Incest Victims: Standing Outside the Matrix, Looking In

Abstract

ABSTRACT Chronic guilt appears frequently in incest victims. It has a distinctive hue that can be described as uncanny, defined by Freud as a feeling produced when openly confronting that which is supposed to be hidden away, or—in the language of trauma—dissociated. In this case, what produces the uncanny is re-encountering Oedipal desire within a specific social context that represses the existence of incest but at the same time depends on an incestuous social order. Recurrence of the dissociated Oedipal desire within this cultural climate produces guilt through a particular etiology, unique to incest, which may be of explanatory value. In this article I aim to show how dealing with the guilt that is so characteristic to incest survivors evolved through three therapy sessions. This evolution occurred as the therapist—using counter transference—understood better the uncanny hue of the patient’s guilt.