Incest is the rape of childhood. As deMause's article so clearly illustrates, incest occurs in private darkness, but is sanctioned in various ways by various cultures. It is systemically traumatic, profound in its consequences, and a monumental impetus to every known manifestation of personal dysfunction. 4 All cultures aspire to cohesive achievement. So long as our verbal condemnation of this evil is subsumed into our active condonation, it will continue to cast its shadow over all societies.
Incest is a chain.
A chain that could be broken had we but the will to do so. We cannot stop every case, but we can, as a society, stop providing safe harbor to perpetrators. Footnotes The diagnostic criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder, for example, form a blanket which covers acute serial killers and some chronic petty thieves equally well. And not all such dysfunction is limited to the original victims. All rights reserved.