FATHER-DAUGHTER INCEST.   Term Paper ID:13917 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: History, mythology, psychology, biblical aspects, short- & long-term destructive impact on female victims & family stability.... More...

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Paper Abstract: History, mythology, psychology, biblical aspects, short- & long-term destructive impact on female victims & family stability. Paper Introduction: THE INCEST TABOO: ITS HISTORY AND EFFECTS Incest is defined as sexual relations between blood kin in an immediate family. Though it often takes the form of brother-sister sexual relations, the issue of father-daughter incest is the topic of this report. There is a great diversity of professional clinical opinion about the cause of incest, why incest is prohibited in so many societies, and what the effects are on the victim of incest--in this case, the daughter. Freud suggests in Totem and Taboo that the roots of opposition to incestuous love choices are not to be found in the psychology of the individual, but in the evolutionary history of the human species. Other researchers have expanded this view to suggest that the incest taboo is biologically related to the survival of the human species. These researchers and theorists Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Feminists suggest that Freud was thoroughly neuroticand that he misread and misinterpreted women and their psychologythroughout his career. The daughter becomes either a "black sheep" or a"favorite" in the course of the incest, disturbing the balance of power forthe rest of the siblings. The Red Lamp of Incest. New York: Academic Press, 1983.Weinberg, S. Thepromiscuous type of father is bold in his relationships with women and mayinitiate the incestuous relationship to wreak vengeance on the wife or someother woman by whom he has been frustrated. They appear to prefer maintaining an unbelievable innocence tooffering an excuse which would seem inadequate no matter what. Among many ofthese tribes incest is seen as having magical qualities, making theaggressor--the man--rich or invulnerable in battle. Denial of the act comes only from those fathers who are sociallycondemned. E. They suggest that this sort ofincest is far more prevalent than noted in the literature for many reasons. [9]Weinberg, 12 . However, she certainly didn't escapethe corruption of her father, Pope Alexander IV, or her brother. It is significant to note that the participants of such primitiveincestuous practices apparently suffer neither guilt nor otherpsychological damage.[8] This is certainly not the case with incestvictims in modern society. He does not have any innateattraction or affection for the daughter, but sees her as a sex-object.The pedophile, also, has no inherent attraction for the daughter because ofthe family relationship, but rather because he has an attraction to veryyoung women and girls, and she happens to be available almost bydefault.[11] Incest, without doubt, changes family roles and upsets the standardfamily dynamic. In this sense, then, all humans are"children of incest." The ramifications of this viewpoint are deep andcomplex. E. Second, the role of the daughter--and it is the eldest daughter whois most often the object of a father's affections--in a traditionallypatriarchal family is relatively powerless. There are several elements which play into the victim's trauma, andalso the aggressor's choice to behave in an incestuous manner. Butultimately, there is no restraining agent in a family where the fatherwants to have sex with the daughter. Usually the incest is not discussed because it upsets normal familyunity. Kirson Weinberg, Incest Behavior (New York: Citadel, 1955), 3. Fathers often warn, threaten or beat theirdaughters to keep the secret safe. Theyare concerned with a general view that the daughter does much of theseducing, denouncing it as not only sexism, but as a particularly savageexample of male dominance and control. Though she is either often ignored or disbelieved, sheis the one who attempts to relay the truth of the matter to the world. The family becomes isolated and it is difficult for anyonewithin it to reach out for help, especially for the daughter/victim.Family members become so dependent upon each other that it retards normalpersonality development. The daughter comes last in aline after the father, mother and all male children, regardless of age.This powerlessness leads to feelings of futility and despair, oftenshrewdly noted and encouraged by the father.[9] Victims in father-daughter incest submit, but unwillingly. Greek and Roman mythology attributed a great variety of sexualpractices to the gods, including incest. There is a great deal of literature on father-daughter incest, andthough much of the writing shares basic assumptions--that incest is acultural taboo and is therefore aberrant behavior, and that there areobservable dynamics in its progression and detection--there are fewergeneralizations about the issue. Historically, incest has waxed and waned as a taboo. New York: Julian Press, 1963.Shepher, Joseph. Faunus and Fauna were the mostnotable father-daughter union in the Greco-Roman heaven. New York: Dutton, 198 .Masters, R. Shepher, Incest: A Biosocial View (New York: Academic Press,1983), 117.----------------------- 11 Some ofthese fathers respond to shame but seldom to guilt. He does not seek the attention of other women andattempts to create a pseudo-marital relationship with the daughter. Even in more modernsocieties, incest is often tolerated among royalty, where complex rulesgovern marriage and the formation of families. These incestuous fathers also use any methods available tokeep the daughters from dating or mating with boys in a normal fashion.They often tell their daughters stories and lies about what they can expectif they date or go with men other than the father. Second, that views about incest have been formulatedby mostly male researchers and thinkers who hold as their model thethinking of Freud. This is the firstindication, through history, of the particular intensity of feelings in andabout the specific father-daughter union.[5] Of course, the Electracomplex--the female version of the Oedipus complex--portrays the daughteras desiring to sleep with her father rather than her father as a lustfulpervert. [6]Ibid., 12-16. How she views the affair sets the tone for the entirefamily. In doing this, she betrays the daughter, who has alreadybeen betrayed in her familial role by the father who is sleeping with her.This is a key to the resulting psychological damage to the daughter. L. During the Renaissance,Lucretia Borgia was the most well-known incest victim, though it isdifficult to assign the word to her. Some incest victims aretraumatized for life by these tales.[1 ] The father usually attempts to stop the girl from marrying, and usesany means to do so. Freud suggests in Totem and Taboo that the roots of opposition toincestuous love choices are not to be found in the psychology of theindividual, but in the evolutionary history of the human species.[3] Otherresearchers have expanded this view to suggest that the incest taboo isbiologically related to the survival of the human species. Thedaughter is completely alone in the world in such a situation. He corrupts the young girl's relationship with her motherby asking her to participate in a deep and terrible lie. Because of the relatively young sexualmaturing of girls, and when the family is self-reflexive as so many of thefamilies of incest are--or become--father-daughter incest occurs.[15] Feminists have attacked father-daughter incest most vehemently. The father is most often drunk (see thestory of Lot) to absolve himself from guilt; this condition makes him moreaggressive. First, that it goes unreported because of the imbalance of power withinsuch a relationship. They turn to their daughters for affection. Incest Behavior. The thinking so far suggests that it is a problem which will inspirecontinuing research and insights from all quarters of intellectual andscientific inquiry. It certainly confuses roles for the father who acts like alover or boyfriend, or even as a husband. She is notan orphan, but treated as if her life and feelings don't count--that onlythe parents' do.[13] In general, the male participants in incest--brothers or fathers--show little guilt and little psychological damage when confronted withtheir acts. Even if themother knows about the problem, she may stay quiet to retain her power asspouse and wife. Most often, the mother sides with the father,even when she is aware of the incestuous relationship. Just the same, infather-daughter incest, it is the daughter who speaks up and gives away thefather's behavior. He also replacesthe mother with the daughter in a symbolic conjugal bed. Certainly, these victims never tell their storiesuntil they are desperate for relief. Some fathers actually feel that they "own" their offspring andcan do with them what they please. The taboo is so strong against incest, and yetthe woman's role so weak within the family structure--especially thedaughter's role--that severe psychological damage is often the result offather-daughter incestuous relationships. Some thinkers have called incest the "original sin" as a result.The most significant incestuous relationship in the Bible is that betweenLot and his daughters.[6] It contains the element of desire on the part ofthe daughters as stated above. [1 ]Ibid., 122-5. [2]R. Many others aresurprised that incest is not only against man's law, but is culturallycondemned. Minton Edition, 1952.Fox, Robin. This leads to furtherpsychological confusion. Though theRomans were adamantly against it, probably to ensure the integrity of theirproperty laws, many practiced it with abandon. This usually takes the form of the father (or occasionally thebrother) deflowering the daughter on her wedding night. No matter at whatpoint in a girl's development the incest occurs, she is traumatized onalmost every level of her existence. In the Old Testament, the children of Adam and Eve were obliged tocommit incest to propagate the race. [4]Ibid., 135-65. This protects herhegemony as wife, even as her conjugal rights may be preempted by thefather's affection for the daughter.[12] The father loses his parental role when he participates in incest;this is especially true when the daughter loses her affection and/orrespect for the man. THE INCEST TABOO: ITS HISTORY AND EFFECTS Incest is defined as sexual relations between blood kin in animmediate family.[1] Though it often takes the form of brother-sistersexual relations, the issue of father-daughter incest is the topic of thisreport. In general, fathers fear onlydetection, and the satisfaction of their sexuality is a primary goal. Because of the dynamic of the relationship, there are few restraintsagainst father-daughter incest. The Romanscelebrated orgiastic rites exceeding all other celebrations in theirlasciviousness in honor of this incestuous mating. Most try anything to minimize their participation, includingsuggesting the seductive capabilities of the daughter or saying that it wasthe wife's idea. Incest: A Biosocial View. [14]Ibid., 7 -91. There are three types of fathers who initiate incest with theirdaughters: the endogamic, the promiscuous and the pedophilic. A common excuse is that they believe that girls becomepromiscuous when sexually mature at 12 and must be "handled correctly" orthey will bring shame to the family.[14] Most often, these men enter marriage as deeply flawed individuals andthe marriage often sours. Still unexplored thoroughly is thegenesis of the taboo and the paradoxical attitude toward it in one ofJudaic-Christian culture's seminal books--the Bible--not to mention themyths of Greece and Rome. There is a great diversity of professional clinical opinion aboutthe cause of incest, why incest is prohibited in so many societies, andwhat the effects are on the victim of incest[2]--in this case, thedaughter. If the daughter rejects thefather's advances, he deprecates her to the rest of the family, andespecially to the mother. Kirson. The biblical forcebehind this idea is also strong, leading the girl--five or 15 or any age--to see herself as guilty, regardless of the circumstances. [5]Masters, 1 . The "natural" seductiveness of women in generalis often seen as sufficient enticement to the man to initiate sex, even ifthe man is the father and the woman is the daughter. Father-daughter incest continues fora longer period than any other sort of incest, because of the father'sinsistence, say researchers. The effect between the mother and daughter hasbeen discussed. [12]Ibid., 162-4. [3]Robin Fox, The Red Lamp of Incest (New York: Dutton, 198 ), 52. [8]Masters, 22-46. The father often uses the family's reluctance to discuss theproblem as leverage for his continuing incestuous behavior. Today, institutionalization of incest exists among some primitivetribes. Lot's two daughters conspire to lie withtheir father so as to preserve his seed, but first they get him drunk sothat he will not have to take responsibility for his act. BibliographyThe Bible. [15]J. Theseresearchers and theorists have analyzed the incest taboo as a means ofpreventing inbreeding and its concomitant genetic defects.[4] The idea of incest has been with mankind from the early days of hisgenesis. [13]Ibid., 172-3. The Bible goeson to say that the tribes of Ammon and Moab are the fruits of thisunion.[7] This story has been a favorite theme with classical and neo-classical painters, who unyieldingly portray Lot's daughters as sensualseducers. Theendogamic type concentrates all of his social and emotional relationshipswithin the family. His power--economic, social andpsychological--is too strong. New York: Citadel Books, 1955.----------------------- [1]S. Masters, Patterns of Incest (New York: Julian Press,1963), 3. [11]Ibid., 162-3. First,historically, the daughter is traditionally thought to have initiated theincestuous relationship. He disrupts her social life, and certainly heremotional life. He can easily affect the family with hisemotional instability and his attitudes about sex. L. The mother is the power figure in the family in a father-daughterrelationship. At worst,they enjoy the act, but not the circumstances. Patterns of Incest. Further, they perceive his thinking and itsinfluence as a dangerous paradigm for either diagnosis or treatment ofincest victims. This is a pattern that prevails in general and in historicaldescriptions of father-daughter incest. [7]The Bible. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.