The girls I have evaluated who were young, uncoerced, and initially pleased with the relationship remain emotionally unscathed, even after protracted incest. However, they may be devastated by the social consequences after discovery.They are fully orgasmic, sexually competent, attractive, and sometimes seductive. Guilt is a relatively late occurrence, often not appearing until early adolescence.
When guilt does occur,it is
nowhere near as shattering as when incest commences in adolescence.
When these girls move out into school and the community,
they swiftly form gratifying liaisons with more
appropriate males.They retain a taste for older partners,such
as foster fathers, male teachers, doctors, and policemen.
When assessed by a psychiatrist, a patient such as this
displays a knowing smile, wears snugly fitting clothes, and
seems more mature than other adolescents. On request, she
sketches a person-unmistakably female, with rounded
thighs and voluptuous lips. She has both the taste and the
knack.
When the outcome is foster placement, the transition may
require the relinquishment of pleasure. Society expects its
children to be asexual and the foster home may be totally
unprepared for a sensuous child. One social worker commented,
"It takes an older couple with plenty of experience."
In an understanding, unruffled placement the girls usually
do adjust, temporarily inhibiting their eroticism as convention
dictates.
Incest that commences in adolescence is different and devastating.
Unlike the younger child, the adolescent girl has
already comprehended and incorporated the moral standards
of society. She admires her father and derives her
moral values and self-esteem from the stability and mutual
respect she perceives in the parents' relationship. The girl
views her father's seduction as a traitorous act, a betrayal of
her mother and of all women. If she feels pleasure she is
debased and depraved. Profound guilt, depression, and helpless
rage result. Fatigue, insomnia, headaches, and suicidal
gestures occur and grades may drop precipitously. She may
become compulsively promiscuous or refuse to date. Bitterness
and frigidity may follow. (Sarles, 1975; Schlacter, 1960;
Kaufman, 1954; Tormeys, 1972)
Although the daughters who experience incest early and
without pain or coercion are not damaged by the act itself,
incest remains symptomatic of major family pathology.
Incest is considered immoral. It places the child in an abnormally
powerful, yet vulnerable position. The girl takes precedence
over her own mother but forfeits the warm, safe role of
child. She may be possessed by a jealous father who restricts
her from healthier outlets. She may be discredited, torn from
the home, shunned by friends, and cross-examined in court.
She may feel responsible for her father's jail term, for the
family chaos, and for the divorce, if one takes place.
There is an important lesson to be learned from noncoercive
father-and-daughter incest. Early erotic pleasure by
itself does not damage the child. It can produce sexually competent
and notably erotic young women. Childhood is the
best time to learn, although parents may not always be the
best teachers.