"The love that dare not call its name." Oscar Wilde
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Sincere appreciation is expressed to all those who helped me in preparing this book. Without their invaluable assistance, it could not have been written. I offer my deepest gratitude to those who made their private files available to me and to the workers in various public libraries.
Also, thank you-MFG, RJ, PB, and STJ.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
PART ONE THE INCEST PROBLEM
PART TWO BROTHER AND SISTER
PART THREE FATHER AND DAUGHTER
PART FOUR MOTHER AND SON
PART FIVE AUNT AND NEPHEW
PART SIX UNCLE AND NIECE RELATIVES
SUMMARY
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INTRODUCTION
There is no sex deviation, not including rape, which evokes such horror and disgust, as incest. From the time of the earliest recorded history of man, every society has recoiled from incestuous relationships.
Each of mankind's succeeding generations has imposed severe penalties upon incestuous partners, and have established clearly defined rules and procedures for controlling the participation of sex between members of the same family.
Whereas the statutes and regulations are severe, the keenest control of all, comes from society per se, so that universally, individuals themselves exert the greatest deterrent against this fear-inspiring sexual act.
Each civilization, no matter how primitive and savage by our standards, has outlawed incest and further, has defined the degree of guilt to be attached to it, and the punishment to be metered out for committing it.
The term, incest, is itself associated with sex and marriage, (Latin-incestum, meaning "unchaste," ) from its earliest beginnings. The "cestus" or girdle was worn by women and loosened by her husband to bring conjugal and parental happiness. Its disuse was known as making a marriage incestuous.
The term has broadened with time and now encompasses much more latitude than it garnered earlier. Also, there was no stigma attached to the word, or act as used by the early Romans and Greeks.
Numerous studies reveal that early man knew of incest and attempted to control, prohibit, and/or regulate it. Punishment was severe, and there was no appeal for leniency, for incest was considered the most grievous and heinous of crimes against society.
Punishment was usually either banishment or decapitation for both participants. If there was a child of an incestuous union, it was unceremoniously destroyed and all allusions or references to it were forever deleted.
The above paragraph applies to tribes of early peoples in Africa, Australia, as well as other parts of the then known world. However, in certain rare instances, the right to commit incest was reserved for the heads of state, or the royal family.
This practice frittered down through the ages to the days of the Greco-Roman Empire and the Ptolemies in Egypt. In these early times, incest had not yet acquired its canonical influence. Each new ruler dealt with it as he saw fit.
Therefore, we see rulers such as Arcadius and Justinian permitting marriage between blood relatives (cognatio naturalis) and godrelatives, (cognatio spiritualis ). Heraclius married his niece, (A.D. 610-641).
Until the 11th Century, marriage between cousins was forbidden. Incest was taboo and thought was, that it corrupted the youth in the family group while they were helpless and dependent on the older members of the family for protection and care.
It was forbidden by both civil laws, as well as the ecclesiastical laws of the Roman Catholic Church which decried it as forbidden relationships, in both the descending and ascending lines of kinship. And even Henry VIII decreed that sex relations between a man and his wife's sister, and between a wife and her husband's brother was banned.
In spite of these taboos, it was perpetuated by many heads of state, and members of royal families who found it convenient for political purposes to intermarry into their own family. And this has continued to the present day.
The Ptolemies, of whom Cleopatra is the outstanding example, all married among themselves. The Incas of Peru married their sisters. In Ireland, many princes married their sisters. In Italy, the Borgias married intrafamiliarly.
The pages of history are full of references to incestuous marriages. Among these are: Caligula, the Roman emperor who married his sister, Drusilla; Nero, who married his mother, Agrippina, Nefertiti who married her brother Akhenaton, and many others.
The myths of early history are full of tales of incest. Zeus is reported as having raped his mother, Rhea, and married his sister, Hera, as well as having copulated with his own daughter, Persophone.
Oceanus and Hyperion participated in brother-sister incest. Even the Bible cites incest between the brother and sister, Tamar and Amnon. Samuel, CHAPTER 13, Second Book.
Literature has used the theme of incest prohfically. Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus, is perhaps the best known. For almost every schoolboy is familiar with the sad tale in which Oedipus marries his mother, Jocasta after killing his father.
Freud based his theory of sex and the libido on the tale of Oedipus and today, we call the abnormal love of a son for his mother, the Oedipus complex. Somerset Maugham, Maxim Gorky, Dylan Thomas, Herman Melville, Na thaniel Hawthorne, Pierre Louys, Thomas Mann, and many other writers have written of incest.
The truth, if it were known, is that there are countless cases of incest taking place in our own society in our own time which go unreported each year, and are therefore undetected. For nothing, no crime of sex, is so carefully concealed as incest.
And because of the makeup of the family unit, it is easy for the participants to get the cooperation of other members of the family in concealing the breaking of the taboo. Incest is a crime that is literally too horrible to relate.
It is this very important fact that makes it so terrible. It attacks society at its very root, the base of the unit, the family, that makes up society in the first place. It is for these three reasons: 1. to preserve the family, 2. and to preserve the species of the human race, i.e., continue the propagating of the race through interfamilial means, and 3. maintain the position of the authority symbol that is tacit in the father, that incest has been consistently abhorred throughout the ages.
Incest is forbidden by law in all states of the United States, although its definition varies as does the punishment meted out. In some states, incest is restricted to sex activity in blood relationships, others take into account stepchildren and stepparents.
Whatever laws exist are ecclesiastic in nature, for no recent attempt to study the disorder has been made. There is never any disagreement that it should be punished. For incest universally fills everyone with horror and dread.
There is perhaps no crime against the state, which involves so much guilt and shame. And herein is the reason for its existence, and its concealment. It is usually a well-kept secret by all concerned.
It is a social crime in the sense that, it has to be committed by more than one party and there has to be cooperation between the parties. All parties are to be considered equally at fault, so that the act of incest becomes automatically a conspiracy of sexual intercourse committed against the state.
Understanding incest and those who take part in it is imperative, if we are to approach the subject successfully. Before it can be studied, we must remove the shame and guilt inherent in it, so that those who take part in an incestuous act can feel free to reach out for assistance.
Shame and guilt must be replaced by a desire for understanding assistance. It is time to give incest a second, long, understanding look. Only then can it be conquered. In the following pages, an attempt is made to study the vital phases of incest with a view to understanding its occurrence. It is hoped that greater understanding will lead to increased hope, towards working with this most unfortunate sex malady.
Lou Condon
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PART ONE
CHARACTERISTICS OF INCESTUOUS RELATIONSHIPS
By definition, incest is any form of sexual intercourse, or deviation, taking place within the structure of the same family.
The above definition makes no distinction between the degrees of relationship, i.e., in-laws, or blood relationships. For today, the thinking in the Western world is that any form of sexual participation by members of the same family, even if only through marriage, is incest.
It has not always been so. In the early times, a sharp distinction was made as to what comprised incest. The emphasis was placed on the consanguinity, the blood relationships, rather than the more distant ones of marriage. For the purpose of clarification, our study will consider the subject in the following order: (a) Incest between siblings, (b) father and daughter and (c) mother and son, inasmuch as this is the order in which they occur most often in society.
Freud has taught us that in order to understand any committed offense, we must first look for the motivation of that act. We ask ourselves then, why does one commit incest? Since it takes place in some families and not others, what are the reasons for its existence? Under what conditions does incest exist?
To get the answers to these questions we must look carefully at the family structure in which incest occurs. We must look at the problem of incest as a whole. The strength or weakness of the family might give us a clue.
Studies made, supply us with certain in formation about the type of family which might harbor the possibility of incest. We discover immediately that incest is found in all levels of life and in all economic brackets.
If we exempt what we will refer to as "political incest," i.e., that taking place among the heads of state, or in royal families, we are left with social incest and we find that there are certain common factors present in incestuous families, and note also, the common characteristics in the personalities of the participants of incest. We must assume then, that there are factors tending towards the committing of incest in those families where it does occur.
As Herbert Blumer of the University of California notes in his introduction of INCEST BEHAVIOR by S. Kirson Weinberg, "For one thing, we note in the case of incest a failure to maintain the strength of the incest taboo in the family-a failure which in most of the cases is due to the weak position or incapacity of the mother. The presence in the family of a strong agent of society's condemnation of incest would seem definitely to bar the occurrence of incest ... the dependence of incest on a state of family disorganization or prior disorganization or prior disintegration. It is made very clear that not only the aggressor in incest is odd or abnormal; instead, the relations in the family are markedly abnormal and disorganized. Promiscuity in sex behavior on the part of parents or siblings, absence of family discipline, sadistic patterns of behavior, marked retreat of the family from outside relations, and the unusual helplessness of certain members of the family are some of the different forms of disintegration to be noted in families in which incest occurs."
We find also that the aggressor in incest, whether it be father, daughter, brother, sister, mother or son, has a career of prior personal disorganization, not including incest, but which encourages it.
Thus, "the incestuous act emerges from a background of the undermining and stultification of the individual's sense of his self, which dulls him to the group prohibition. And in this connection, we need to note the chain of purely incidental factors such as crowded quarters, common beds, and absence of privacy, which facilitate incest in a crowded family.
"And that the children have little opportunity to learn that society disapproves and condemns incest."
We note then, the common factors required for the nonoccurrence of incest: (1) a strong mother image, (2) well organized family, (3) moral sex behavior pattern, (4) strong ego on the part of the main members of the family, (5) and lastly, normal physical living environment.
It goes without saying, that the absence of the above make for a breeding ground of incestuous behavior. We will immediately note, that physical overcrowding and the lack of privacy do not in themselves bring about incest.
They only make it easier for incest to occur. There must be a predisposition to incest in the first place. The home facilitates the consummation of the incest when there is already a desire for such a relationship, just as the lack of privacy affects the attitudes of the family members towards a weakened moral pattern.
"Overcrowded homes by disrupting personal privacy may break down the sexual barrier ... by bringing children prematurely into contact with the gross facts of sex," the Scotland Report finds.
But the important single factor emanating from an incestuous family is that the incestuous individual lacked the moral and emotional attitudes necessary for preventing incest, so that they fell prey easily to the existing factors conducive to committing incest.
The "incestuous family" then is different to a normal one in various ways. We might draw a picture of it thusly: it is made up of one or both parents, one or both of whom may be employed; there are usually more than two siblings; there is much overcrowding and a consequent lack of privacy.
The mother is permissive, lax or negligent. Often the mother is indifferent to the welfare of the children and the home, while having a good time and avoiding her household duties.
She sided with the father instead of the children in times of stress. There is an absence of closeness between her and the children, leaving the children "to raise themselves." Or on the other hand, she is too weak to resist the tyranny of the father and withdraws from family crises.
The father on the other hand is overly authoritarian. He is dominant in the family because he intimidates the family members. He is often unemployed and is supported by other members of the family.
Often the father is violent, abusive, cruel, self-assertive, threatening and contentious. Often also, the father exploits the family, shifting responsibility to others in the family, but always maintains the authority for himself.
Fathers who work might squander their money on drink and in other ways, or, change jobs frequently and yet manage to dominate the family through fear.
The children in such homes ob-eyed the father through being browbeaten, but not through love or respect. There is rarely admiration for either the father or the mother. Resentment is generally undercurrent.
Often the father is secretly hated, with the dismissal that "he did nothing for me"; the mother held in disrespect because "she didn't stick up for me."
The children of the families find it difficult to cultivate friendships with others outside the family, or with members of the opposite sex. They usually do poorly in school, and belong to no community groups such as the Boy or Girl Scouts.
They receive no information on sex from their parents except from the exposure of living in too-closely confined quarters, thus supplying them with sexual freedom, and much opportunity for exploration and experiment. They are often more familiar with sex at an early age, than children from less crowded homes, even while being ignorant about the responsibilities of sex.
Children from such homes rarely go to church or receive moral teachings in any way. They lack supervision or control and obtain no sex restraints from the parents, or little affection from them.
There is little demonstration of love in the home. Promiscuity is accepted as natural when it occurs. Gambling, drinking and philandering are accepted as natural. Profane, abusive language is customary.
In addition, the relationship between husband and wife is either not close, with the mother going her way and the father his, or there is only one parent in the home, usually a mother, in which case the family would be recipient of public welfare.
The children, unable to build stable friendships outside of the family, usually become dependent on each other, thus developing into an in-grown family. Often, there are children of different fathers.
We see then, that there are common factors in a family setting which predispose its members towards the committing of incest. Which form of incest the members finally perform is determined by the factors present.
TYPES OF INCEST
Statistics and studies made, tell us that incest follows three basic forms, i.e., brother-sister; father-daughter; and mother-son. Social workers know also that there is a high incidence of incest in the lower degrees of family kinship, i.e., in-law and step-relationship and through marriage.
The type of incest is determined by characteristics and factors found in the family situation itself, and the attitudes of the parties involved.
We will discuss each of the major types of incest separately and describe the general conditions nourishing each.
BROTHER-SISTER INCEST
By far and large, this is reported as the most common type of incest. It is my opinion as a social worker, doing pediatric and family casework in New York City that a far greater number-never get reported. Most reported cases are brought to light only when the girl involved becomes pregnant.
Many families have multiple brother-sister incest activity. In this type of incest, there is always the danger of prolonged continuation because of the care of the participants, in keeping it secret.
Often the brother-sister incest continues throughout the lifetime of the individuals and throughout the marriage of both parties. After all, few people will think badly of a brother or sister who shows devotion to each other. One dismisses such a situation with a casual observation as, "They are very close."
In addition, incest is usually a subject that is avoided. Even to think about it, is considered too horrible for most people. So it is made easier for the brother and sister to enjoy the forbidden love without fear of censure from the public.
Should any other member of the family suspect incest between two siblings, they would be enjoined from speaking about it, and would be brought into the conspiracy of silence surrounding the couple involved. It is important to note that incest occurs in families of all sections of the population and in all racial groups.
Studies have shown, however, that recent immigrants from the "peasant" countries of Europe, as well as the poor and illiterate, tend to have a higher incidence of incest than other groups.
Sometimes in cases of incest between brother and sister, it is the sister who reports the brother's incestuous behavior. The sisters usually act, out of fear of the brother.
More incest occurs in rural areas, than in cities. When it is detected in cities, the neighbors are usually not so stirred up over the disclosure and accept the incident with less intensity than would be the case in rural areas.
Most brothers and fathers involved in incest are found in the unskilled, manual occupations. A large number of them are unemployed, at the time of the incest, or are unstable in their work pattern.
The intelligence of this type of individual participating in incest was usually found to be below normal, although this is truer of the father-daughter type than the brother-sister. The brother is more inclined to be evenly distributed in intelligence than the fathers. It would be wrong to say, however, that intelligence determines incest.
But studies show that intelligence indirectly influences social maladjustment, which in turn influences the personality of the incestuous male member and thus, the organization of the family unit.
The contrary, of course is true of the female member if she is a sister, or a daughter. The lower the intelligence of the female, the longer the incestuous affair is likely to endure.
Thus, the feebleminded female member is more dependent on the male member than the more intelligent female, who is more likely to protest and resist the incest, and often is responsible for reporting it.
The personality of the male member of an incestuous relationship usually can be described as egocentric, inadequate, emotionally unstable, and is either a psychopathic personality or a sexual psychopath.
These males are also likely to be alcoholic, paranoid, suspicious, quarrelsome with friends and employers (thus making it impossible to hold a job) and other members of the family.
The family size is usually large, averaging about five and six children, often having more than one father-in or out of legal status.
In the brother-sister incestuous relationship, the brother is usually the older, and the aggressor. The fathers of the relationship exhibited a greater knowledge of birth control than did the brothers. This resulted in a greater rise in pregnancies and childbirths among the sisters than among the daughters.
The sisters, however, were older and more promiscuous than the daughters. The females were generally guilty of sexual laxity and this resulted in ready cooperation in the incestuous affair. Most participated willingly when this promiscuity was present, with the sisters more willing than the daughters.
The promiscuous sisters had the greater tendency to invite the relationship than the non-promiscuous group. Often there was a history of prostitution present.
Often the fathers dominated the daughters through violence and abuse, thereby projecting a false authority over the children. This, together with the low-level intelligence of the daughter and a latent promiscuity made her an easy prey to his advances.
Often the fathers would commit the incestuous act through sharing a bed with his daughter; and also, while the mother was away from the home. Once initiated, he would continue to keep control through fear, threats and domination.
This was true, even when the father was unemployed and was being supported by his wife. He would not give up his control, even though he lacked the financial dominance needed to maintain a real position as head of the family.
In most instances, the members had a desire for such a relationship, or there was no unwillingness for its occurrence. This was due to a lack of organization in the family, or the low level of intelligence.
In the mother-son incest cases, the mother was usually of a weak personality and the father was usually out of the home. When the father was present, he was the retiring, weak member and the mother the dominant one.
The social relations between the mother and son were either based on the son being the aggressor, or the mother being the aggressor. When the mother was the aggressor, the relationship between them was ambivalent, intimate yet hostile; and when the son was the aggressor, the relationship was either distant or close.
The mother was either widowed or separated from her husband generally, and when the father was present in the family, he was weak and ineffective.
The incestuous mother was usually sexually and socially aggressive, and incapable of sustaining enduring relationships with a man on a normal level.
Her attitude towards the children were selfish, and exploitative. Often she felt that they were burdens and she thus neglected them, and sought her own social life away from the home.
She was frequently alcoholic and promiscuous, often a prostitute. The sons were unloved and dependent on the mother for emotional sustenance and for guidance. She was indifferent to the daughters and irresponsible in general, so that the children raised themselves.
The studies we have available indicate that the backgrounds of the incestuous fathers have similar items. Often they were deprived of a normal family life by the death or separation of the parents, some were reared in disorganized homes with loose cultural patterns of sex, or were raised in public institutions, or were reared in extremely ingrown families.
They might be classified loosely in the following categories:
(a) endogamic, or intrafamily orientated
(b) extreme promiscuity
(c) pedophilia, or a love for children for sex purposes.
The endogamic incest member uses his family members because he lacks the ability to cultivate females outside the family for social or sexual purposes. In this light, Jung states that a husband lacking basic relationship with his wife will consciously or unconsciously seek a love substitute in his daughter.
If this is not possible, his libido regresses to the memory of his mother in unconscious incest. Often the advances of the father to his daughter is explained by the Oedipus complex. In this case, the daughter is a substitute for her mother, and is made to assume the role her mother is expected to play.
The three types of incestors (males) possess different attitudes towards sex. The endogamic type is usually not promiscuous. The pedophilia type confined his lust to physically immature girls and the last type was indiscriminately promiscuous.
The endogamic lived a family-oriented life, since he was incapable of building social relationships on a normal, competitive basis outside the home.
The pedophile was incapable of sustaining or building relationships with adult women and is incapable of obtaining satisfaction sexually in a normal sex relationship. He is insecure and weak in his impulses and feels anxious about his sexual abilities.
His desire for children arose basically from psychosexual immaturity and/or retardation. This lust for young girls was often accompanied by desire for perversions.
The promiscuous male was promiscuous before and after marriage and viewed women purely as sexual objects and avenues for satisfying his lust.
His sexual interest in women was usually a result of hostility rather than tenderness, which he lacked. He was funda mentally interested in seduction, and when he was not appeased, he vented his hostility on them by abusing, beating and in other ways, hostile to them.
Since his interest was essentially sexual, he pursued loose women and prostitutes, and thus reinforced his low opinion of women generally, by categorizing all women as being the same.
He was undisciplined when sustained attention was required and' squandered all his money on loose women and drink. He frequented prostitutes and was always on the lookout for women he could seduce. He was interested in variety and not in the building of a sustained relationship with anyone.
Though he might marry, he scorned marital obligations and family ties, and openly boasted about his outside interests. Often he would discuss them with his wife, or if this were not possible, he would find some way to let her know what he was doing.
As age diminish his prowess and attraction to women, he would become increasingly frustrated sexually and his hostility intensifies. Finding no outlet, but becoming more and more frustrated because of his sexual discontent, especially if he is denied sexual relations with his wife, he would seek sex outlets with a member of the family.
Social relations between the male incestor and his wife is usually conflicting and sexual relations is usually strained. Their incompatibility results from inadequate income since he is not a good provider, an adulterer, and general abuser.
The spouse's disapproval of his irresponsible ways easily upset him. And the marriage worsens with the years. He appears unable to cultivate a tender attachment with his wife.
He is unable also to tolerate the customary frustrations of daily living, and is suspicious, hostile and brutal. As a result, he is always on the search for the ideal woman and subordinates marital and family considerations to hedonic pleasures and transient gratification.
It is necessary to note that their wives had complementary personalities and needs, which these husbands satisfy. Some wives, passively masochistic accept their husbands' abuse. Others, morally rigid, despite their protestations against their husbands' behavior, had hidden desires for them. Still others were emotionally immature and socially irresponsible and finally, others were deceived by the husbands' manner during their courtships days and taken in before really getting to know them.
Most wives react negatively to sexual relations with their incestuous husbands, especially if they are the promiscuous type. They are averse to the demands made upon them because the sex act is mechanically physical and devoid of affection and tenderness.
According to Weinberg, "the indiscriminately promiscuous types, who seemed incapable of affection, were especially hostile to their wives. These wives complained that though they were sexually excited they were love starved.'"
THE NATURE OF THE INCEST ATTACHMENT
The incest attachment is an emotional attraction, which one incest participant has for the other. It can result from genuine affection, or from possessive lust. In it, the active participant becomes concerned about the other participant's activities. Some scientists refer to this attachment as "incestuous love."
Others refer to it as erotic bond in which one party is intensely in love with the other. It resulted in a sense of guilt and shame, because it could not be brought to full expression.
Widowed fathers and widowed mothers who succumb because of the "recognition motive," and with their adult daughter and son respectively, become "loving couples."
In incest love, however, a reciprocal attraction exists between the participants. Both are voluntary partners and comply with each other's wishes. The intensity of the incest attachment varies and depends on the character of the participants' previous relationships and from their prospects for association with other women or men.
The endogamic participant usually concentrates his social relationships upon the partner because he usually does not seek attention elsewhere. He tends to sustain the incest relationship and to create permanency.
The promiscuous type who is bold in his relations with other women will disregard the incest relationship, when other women are available. He may consider his incest partner as an accessible sex object to be turned to when he needs her.
She is a source of sexual satisfaction, rather than of love. Such men will induce their partners into prostitution, so that the girls will fill a double purpose of supplying their basic double needs.
In the brother-sister incest relationships where the attachment is interpersonal, the siblings often outgrow the incest need and their desires for each other are deflect quite casually.
In such cases, because of the casual nature of the incest relationship, it often goes unreported for neither party would refer to it anymore.
Some of the girls having known incest, become promiscuous after the termination of the relationship. They may become prostitutes. All tend to become sexually loose, even if they were not so before.
Most were shy and even hostile to men. There is also the tendency to marry one unlike the members of the family, which Marcuse calls, the "neurotic exogamy."
Many married, but were unable to achieve any stability in their marriage, and, left their, husbands to become adulterous. This is especially true of the sisters, and daughter-sisters. The daughters, as a group made the best adjustment in marriage.
EFFECTS UPON THE MALE PARTICIPANT
Many male participants react to incest by intense guilt and fear of detection, though some fear only detection. Some blame the other participant for leading him on. Most denied committing the incestuous act when arrested and tried.
Even in prison, the ones most reluctant to admit and confess their guilt were the incest offenders. The expressions of shame must not be construed as guilt feelings, rather they are reactions to intense social disapproval, as these offenders are aware of the social disapproval attached to the offense.
Also, the promiscuous offender, among whom would be psychopaths, is unable to feel guilt but does respond to shame. His silence is to protect himself. When it is admitted, it is minimized.
THE EFFECT OF INCEST ON THE FAMILY
The position of the father as head and authority is lost, as the daughter participant loses her affection and respect for him as a parent.
The role of the daughter involved is changed. She may be given an inferior sibling role if she resists, or associates with other boys. She may become the favorite when she submits.
The other siblings, especially the brothers, are usually unsuccessful in protecting their sister from their father. Or she might become the defender of her younger sisters in resisting her father's advances, or may consider the sister replacing her as a rival for her father's attentions.
The most important effect upon the family is the tension between the daughter, or between the siblings and the father.
In the brother-sister relationship, the normal sibling relationship is broken down, as the sister begins to consider her brother as a boy friend and not a brother. If the incest continues after one marries, the unmarried sibling then competes with the spouse for the married sibling's affection.
In the mother-son incestuous relationship, the son replaces the father in the husband role. If the husband is absent, the son assumes the paternal role. The mother may then have designs to prevent his marriage.
It is because of these effects that incest is so frowned upon by the church. It is the strongest threat to the strength of the family as a social institution. In the following pages we will observe more closely how this is so.
The other reason why incest is so avidly fought is biological. Scientists fear that inbreeding will prolong and perpetuate any defects present in the family blood lines, without an opportunity to be weakened by interfamily breeding.
PART TWO
BROTHER AND SISTER INCEST
CASE HISTORY: Harriet and Paul
Harriet and Paul were siblings in a large family of thirteen children. Their father left the home shortly after Harriet was born. Harriet was followed by seven other children, who were fathered by two different men.
Paul was the oldest boy and was greatly attached to Harriet for as long as Harriet could remember. When the last of the three fathers left the home, Paul became very protective of Harriet and tended and cared for her devotedly.
He carried her about with him whenever he went out to play. And otherwise cared for her. This devotion evoked no special interest since the family was so large.
The mother, a small, fairly normal woman in intelligence, led a very active social life in spite of her large brood. She was out frequently. Later on in life, she was to become very religious and rigid in her moral views, but the early child-rearing days found her sexually loose and fancy free.
The older children tended the younger ones. The family was very poor. There was never enough money. Harriet's mother learned to be an excellent cook and later the family, their spouses and children would congregate in her house.
Harriet and Paul strongly resembled each other as to facial features and coloring. Paul was tall and big, Harriet was well formed and tiny, although attractive. The attraction both held for each other continued through adult hood and throughout the, two marriages of both.
As children, Paul had taken to dressing and undressing Harriet for school and for bed. It was to him she turned for advice and guidance whenever it was needed. The family lived in four dilapidated rooms in a rundown section of a suburban city. The children sought every opportunity to remain out of the home.
Paul got into the habit of taking Harriet with him on his motorbike and they would roar off into the street, with Harriet clinging on to his back. Paul had been caring for Harriet's physical needs such as her bedtime bath from such an early age, that she grew into girlhood taking his care for granted.
Sometimes when Paul was bathing her, his hands would linger caressingly on Harriet's budding new breasts that were just beginning to thrust against her clothes. Paul was by that time, a tall and heavily built man.
Because the financial needs of the family were so urgent, Paul had not been able to graduate from high school. He had left school to get a job and was contributing from his salary to help out at home.
Every week he brought Harriet some little gift of wearing apparel. Harriet learned to expect these and eventually she took receiving gifts for granted. It led to selfishness later.
Harriet noticed and liked the gentle, tender way that Paul soaped her body when he was bathing her. He talked to her a great deal and told her things none of the other girls knew.
Harriet was getting old enough to bathe herself and one day as Paul was bathing her, one of the older sisters told him to stop. She noticed that Paul's face flushed and his lips quivered.
Paul did not stop. While drying her, his hands lingered over her tiny compact body that was not to grow any bigger, as she would remain short all her life. Then Paul did an odd thing. As he was drying between her legs, he let the towel linger and Harriet could feel his fingers, strong and hard, pressing down deep inside her. He did it again a few times before he stopped.
Harriet was ten years old at the time. She later would remember exactly the delicious thrill that coursed through her, at the touch of Paul's fingers pressing down into her.
Harriet looked at Paul and smiled her beautiful smile at him. His face was set in strange, new lines, and a vein throbbed wildly in his temples. Harriet squealed delightedly. This was a new adventure she was sharing with Paul, like the other new things they were always doing.
"I like that!" she gurgled.
Paul gave an anxious look back over his shoulder. Then his eyes found hers and he smiled. "Shhhhh. Not so loud. This is a secret between us, like all the other secrets we have, OK?"
Harriet nodded still smiling. "We have lots of secrets."
"Yes. Now, remember. You must never tell anyone about this one."
Harriet shook her head. "No. I won't tell."
And Paul knew she would not, so great was the bond between them. He continued drying her, and moved the towel to her back. "Now bend over on my arm so I can dry your hiney," he advised.
Harriet bent over and leaned on Paul's arm. With his other arm, he rubbed the towel all over her back and buttocks. Then it was happening again. Harriet felt his fingers pressing on her vagina. A lovely warm feeling spread over her again.
"You're doing it again," she laughed. "I like it."
She heard Paul let out a breath. "You are sure you like it?"
"Unh. I like it."
"If I do it again, you promise to keep it a secret just between us, like always?"
"Yes. Do it some more!"
Now Paul removed the towel and inserted his finger to the edge of Harriet's vagina. Gently and slowly he began massaging the tiny extrusions and the hard tip of the child's clitoris.
"Ooooooooh! That feels so funny!"
"All right. I'm going to stop."
"I don't want you to stop," Harriet protested. "Do it some more."
Paul bent his head so that he could hear the sounds and noises coming from the room outside the bathroom door, and once again inserted his finger into the child's vagina. This time he did not stop at the mouth of the vagina, but went further in. Paul whirled his fingertip round and round the inner flesh of the warm opening, without trying to penetrate deep into the orifice.
"If you really like it, we will do it some more, some other time," he promised. "Awright!"
With that, he finished drying the child and helped her to dress in her nightgown. When he laid her in the bed where four of them were to sleep, Harriet clung to his neck. "I want to sleep with you tonight," she pleaded.
"Tomorrow night you can sleep with me," Paul promised, tucking her in.
The following night Harriet reminded him of his promise and Paul told her all right, but he did not take her to bed. Instead, Harriet crept into bed and was fast asleep by the time Paul got home.
Paul, as the oldest son, and the financial head of the family, had been given a small bed by himself. Through the early years of her childhood, Harriet had been allowed to sleep with him.
That particular night, however, Harriet awoke to feel Paul beside her.
"Wanna wee wee," she told her brother. "All right. C'mon."
Paul took her to the bathroom and waited for her to finish. But instead of allowing her to dry herself as she had been taught to do, Paul took the toilet tissue and ministered to her.
Harriet could feel his firm fingers probing and pushing the paper into her tiny opening. She was half asleep, but knew from before what she was feeling.
"You're doing it again," she whispered sleep ily.
"Hush now!" Paul warned her. "I'll do it some more when you get to bed if you keep quiet."
"Awright," Harriet murmured.
Paul led her back to bed and she snuggled close to him. It was good to feel his warmth snuggled near. His big arms enfolded her. She could feel his fingers trailing like a feather along her thigh.
Her tiny body began to shiver. She had seen one of her sister's boy friends do that to her. She whispered to Paul. "I seen Rufe do that to Mattie," she said.
But Paul's hand covered her mouth and she knew she was to remain quiet. Again Paul's fingers trailed along her thighs. This time they went on down to where her little V formed and forced her legs apart.
Paul's hand found itself covering the soft V. The firm, young flesh was warm under his fingers. One of his fingers penetrated into the parted lips of the vagina and went deep and stopped.
The hand did no more than rest there. Harriet leaned against Paul and felt the hard penis pressing against her back. She was familiar with a penis. She had seen Paul's and that of some of her younger brothers many times.
"Your Peter Pee is jabbing me in the side," she whispered to Paul.
"So what am I supposed to do with it? If it's in your way, move it," he whispered back.
This seemed natural to Harriet and she took her tiny hand and grasped the penis. The rigid object was hard and fully extended and her hand couldn't meet around it.
"Too big!" the child whispered.
"No. It isn't," Paul whispered back. And again his hand reached over and covered her mouth.
Then he moved and Harriet felt the hard tip of the penis resting on the mouth of her vagina. She moved a little closer to him. She had once seen her mother doing this with Uncle Joe.
"Are you going to do it?" she inquired. It seemed a perfectly natural thing to do.
For a second Paul didn't answer. Then she heard a murmured, "Maybe."
Harriet felt the tip of the penis go farther and remain. Then Paul was moving and wiggling, slowly and quietly, so that no one would hear him.
"That's not how Uncle Joe did it to Mommy," she whispered. "He was moving real quick!"
"It would hurt you if I did that," Paul whispered back.
So it was, Paul seduced his sister but did not penetrate her for more than a year. At eleven, Harriet had her first menses and it was Paul who explained it all to her. They still went out together a lot and were still quite close, but Paul was becoming increasingly cautious as the girl grew older.
Then one day, they were alone in the apartment. It was a rare opportunity and Paul who had been watching a baseball game on TV, suddenly found Harriet standing beside him. He felt her weight leaning on his shoulder.
"Let's play games," the girl teased.
Paul was engrossed in the game, so to tease him away from the set, Harriet rustled and rubbed herself on him. She rubbed her thigh slowly along his shoulder pressing against him. By this time she knew all about sex. She had seen the sex act performed many times by her older sister and by her mother and their boy friends.
She felt Paul stiffen suddenly. "Now stop that!" he ordered in a choked voice. "You want me to make you for sure, don't you?"
Harriet laughed, teasingly. "Bet you can't do it. That's why you never done it."
Paul stared at her and his face flushed. "I was thinking of you," he replied hotly. "I didn't want to hurt you."
"I didn't say I'd get hurt." Harriet was keeping a strange half smile on her face.
"What you trying to do? Get us both in trouble?" Paul demanded.
"You scared!" Harriet taunted.
"Sure I'm scared. And you should be too!"
Harriet laughed a low thrill and again rubbed herself against him. She sidled over until she was standing in front of him. Her vagina was in line with his face. Without a word, Paul grabbed and clasped her firmly.
Harriet raised her dress and pressed herself against Paul's flushed face. She opened her legs and Paul buried his face between her legs. Then Paul was oral-loving her vagina and pulling at her clitoris.
At first Harriet didn't feel the expected sensation. Then suddenly, Paul stuck his tongue deep inside the small opening, that still had the hymen intact and for a fleeting second Harriet felt a strange, delicious, thrill that came and went quickly.
"Ohhhhhhh! Do that again, Paul. Please do that. It felt good."
"I can't. I might spoil it," he said.
Harriet gave a chuckle. "It's gotta break sometime," she answered matter-of-factly.
Paul again went between her legs and this time, Harriet felt the pressure throbbing against the hard membrane that was her hymen. Then Paul was doing things to the tip of her clitoris.
By this time, Harriet had developed a very sensitive clitoris from the constant playing on the part of Paul. Slowly her hips began to move very awkwardly.
"You don't know how to grind," Paul told her. "Move round and round slow and even like," he advised.
"How come you know so much about it?" Harriet asked, but she began to do as she had been told.
"I been to a whore's, that's how."
"Let me do that to you now," Harriet told him. She was beginning to get sore. "It's your turn."
"I dunno if I ought to let you," Paul temporized. "I'm pretty big."
But he took out his distended penis and was fondling it tenderly. His eyes were almost shut and his breath came in pants. Harriet gazed at the nakedness of Paul. "It sure is big," she admitted, "but I want to try it just the same."
"ALL right. Get downno-you're so little-you better let me get down on my knees and you can stand up to play with it."
So Paul got to his knees as if he were praying and Harriet stood up. His hips just reached her face. It was no effort at all for her to give him this abnormal thrill.
Harriet was surprised to see that his flesh was warm to her touch.
"Come on, move your mouth. Real hard. It won't hurt," Paul commanded.
Harriet started to pull but her teeth got in the way and clamped down hard on the gristle.
"You don't have to bite me," Paul exclaimed. "Move outta the way and let me do it my way."
Harriet held her tongue back and Paul began a slow even gyrating, which slid and moved his pelvis in a carnal gesture. Harriet began to feel the good sensation she had before.
Her body grew tense and she clung to Paul fervidly. "You like it, Hettie. I kin tell you like it."
Paul's voice was hoarse with excitement. Then he was moving frantically. "I'm gonna reach the top," he cried suddenly. "Get ready!"
Then before Harriet could do anything, he was almost yelling, "I'm ... almost ... ohhhhhh...."
Harriet felt the climax. Quickly Paul withdrew his throbbing body. Harriet raced to the kitchen and washed herself.
"I don't like that part," she said.
Paul was using his handkerchief. "Next time I'll use my handkerchief," he said.
After that, they performed cunnilingus and fellatio frequently. Still, Paul had not penetrated the hymen. Harriet teased him, but Paul held back. One day Harriet taunted him and made him angry.
"Iffen you don't want to do it, I'm gonna let Ralphie take it," Harriet promised.
Paul stared at her. Harriet was now going on thirteen and had been menstruating for almost two years. "All right. If that's the way you feel, I'll do it. But I don't want to hear nuthin' from you about it later on!"
"I ain't goin' to complain about nuthin," Harriet said.
"Awright, tell Maw I'm taking you to the movies and meet me down the street at the Greasy Spoon," Paul advised.
"Where we goin'?" Harriet asked, excitement making her eyes big. "You'll find out!"
Paul took her to an apartment, she had never been before.
"Whose apartment is this?"
"Belongs to a friend of mine. His wife works nights and he is out for a while."
Harriet smiled. "To give us time to do it."
"You talk too much," Paul said.
"You don't have to sound so angry. I ain't done nuthin'."
Harriet stood by the bed and stared at her toes. She didn't understand why Paul was angry or looked so strange. She looked up suddenly and caught his eyes. There was a strange light in them-and was it shame? She couldn't figure it out. But thinking was too much trouble for her.
Her face brightened. "Kin we go to the movies afterwards?" she asked.
Paul looked away. "I guess so."
He came over to her and began rubbing her face, the way he always did. Harriet leaned against him. His fingers began unbuttoning her blouse. He took everything off her until she was nude.
Then he made her lie on the bed and got in beside her. It was usual for them to lie naked whenever they got the chance, but today was different. There was something about Paul that was different.
Then she felt him doing the things they had been doing and Harriet began to relax. She had become quite sensual by this time and responded to Paul's caresses with fervor and equal ardor. Strangely enough, it was Paul who felt guilt and shame and not Harriet.
Harriet encouraged Paul on, when he stopped in dismay at what they were about to do. She gave him the final push into the incestuous act by performing fellatio on him. By now Paul was a seething cauldron.
He mounted Harriet and for the first time, she felt his full weight on her in the complete sex act. She felt his maleness hovering over her body. Then the male pressure was gently caressing her softness.
Suddenly, something was inside her. Paul was being gentle. Harriet could feel a thump, thump. It hurt but felt sort of good. She was sensing Paul's discomfort.
She gave a violent thrust against him, just as he came down towards her. With a desperate tearing and wrenching, the membrane gave way and he consummated the act.
Harriet cried out in pain and surprise. She had not expected the pain. But Paul was oblivious to her cries now that he had penetrated her. At last he shuddered, in what Harriet had come to recognize as his climax.
She herself had not enjoyed the act at all. It had been too new and too quick. She was left with a feeling of letdown. Perhaps the next time it would be better. Paul had told her that it usually grew on you.
There were many other times for Harriet and Paul, now that the ice was broken. To remove suspicion from the minds of the rest of the family, she dated other boys and Paul dated other girls, but they never enjoyed anyone as much as they did each other, being brother and sister.
They met frequently, several times a week and Harriet discovered that she preferred fel latio and cunnilingus to the natural sex act, although she acceded to Paul's demands to please him.
She had experimented with several other boys also and by the time she was sixteen was a seasoned sensualist. A quiet, demure exterior and a soft manner and voice carried her through without much suspicion.
But late in her sixteenth year, a calamity happened that brought changes in Harriet's life. She and Paul were alone and he was fondling her nipples that were standing hard and rigid under his fingers.
Harriet could feel that Paul was ready to consummate their act. She turned over and gently touched his face.
"Paul I"
"MMMMmmmmm?"
"You do love me, don't you?"
Paul leaned on one elbow and stared at her. His finger traced an invisible line on her cheek. "You know I do."
"More than anyone?" Harriet persisted.
"Of course. You know that. More than anyone."
Harriet snuggled close to him. She was happy with the answer.
"I wish I could marry you," she said quietly.
Paul was aghast. He stared at her. Terror was in his eyes. "You are one crazy-" he whispered. "You're my sister."
Harriet's laughter trilled through the room.
"Paul-"
"Yeah. What?"
"I'm goin' to have a baby."
For a long moment Paul was still, then he turned, sat on the side of the bed and stared at her.
"How do you know?"
"Ain't had muh period. Three weeks late."
Paul was silent. "Maw know yet?"
Harriet shook her head. "No one but you."
He asked the question then that he had to.
"Know-Who it fer?"
"You ah guess. Ain't had nobody but you since my last period."
"Now, Harriet, you been playing around with that Tommy Hawkins-"
Harriet shook her head. "Ah ain't had nobody but you for almost two months. Honest, Paul. Honest!"
Paul got up and paced up and down the room in agitation. "Nobody must know about us. You hear? Nobody! No matter what we have to do. It would kill Maw now that she's got religion."
Harriet turned her head to the wall. She wasn't upset. Paul was, though. "There's got to be something we kin do. You gotta git married before anybody finds out."
"I don't want to get married to nobody but you, Paul."
"You crazy. I gotta think for you all the time."
And that was exactly what Paul did. And two months later, Harriet and one of the boys she had been dating were married. Harriet's marriage did not stop the clandestine relationship with her brother. They became extremely cautious.
She remained married and subsequently, a boy and a girl were born to them, in addition to the first son, who had a strong and striking resemblance to his uncle. If her husband suspected, he gave no notice.
Their marriage was as unstable as their financial state. Ralph was a truck driver for a construction company and so worked only seasonally. Harriet got along well with her husband because of her quiet manner.
She and Paul continued to meet whenever possible. Paul, who had never married, went into a common-law relationship with an attractive, understanding woman and had two children by her.
Then one day after several years of marriage, her husband's oldest brother was released from prison and visited them. He was gay, physical and attractive with an appealing line and Harriet fell under Johnny's spell immediately. He was to remain with them for a few days. One night as she made up the studio couch in the living room for him to go to bed, they were alone in the house, he accidentally touched her leg. The sheer nightgown and robe presented no obstacle and the touch burned on her flesh.
Harriet finished making the bed and then got into it and under the covers. Johnny stared at her. "Ralph will be back soon," he said, staring at her.
"No," Harriet answered. "He's gambling tonight. He won't be back until late."
Without another word, Johnny undressed and got in the bed with her. He decided to let her make the first move. The idea that he was her husband's brother did not bother either of them.
Harriet, however, had a surprise for him. She would not allow him to cohabit with her. She insisted on cunnilingus and fellatio only. So the resilient Johnny complied. When Ralph returned later, each was asleep in the proper bed.
Johnny stayed with them for a few weeks, and he and Harriet shared themselves daily, but no matter how much Johnny would press her, Harriet would not allow him to cohabit with her.
Johnny accepted the partial relationship, for whenever he returned, Harriet was always willing and compliant to perform fellatio and allow him to do cunnilingus. The years passed, until one day Johnny took up with a woman who was completely out of his class or background in a common-law relationship.
Since the woman was quite wealthy, she immediately applied pressure to Johnny to disassociate himself from the close relationship he had with Harriet, whom he treated like a wife.
It was to Harriet that he had come to turn whenever he was in trouble or needed a shoulder to lean on. It was Harriet who advised him when he was perturbed. He referred to her as his wife and treated her like one.
Rita, the common-law wife, objected and with rare perception immediately saw through the arrangement and charged him with having an affair with his sister-in-law. Johnny denied vehemently, even though he readily admitted his other promiscuous affairs with other women.
That might have been the end of the affair, if Harriet had not herself broken off with her brother-in-law. She had become thoroughly promiscuous, even though married. It was only her discretion and her husband's attitude of deliberately not seeing what was going on, that held the marriage together.
There had been no change in her relationship with her own brother. Johnny accepted her breaking off with him as a temporary estrangement. He knew he would always go back to her if he found it hard to get another woman, should Rita leave him.
Johnny, himself had come from a disorganized home. He was the natural child of his father who had married someone other than his mother. His mother worked as a laundress for a wealthy family who allowed her to keep the boy with her.
He was happy with the other children in the family and from them obtained the only stability he would ever be able to acquire. But in his early teens, his mother married a man who would not allow her to keep the boy.
Johnny was placed in an institution where he was to stay for the rest of his youthful days. As soon as he was discharged from the institution, he took up with a wild group of young people and after becoming involved in one delinquent deed after another, found himself in prison where he was to remain for almost twelve years.
He was egocentric, selfish, self-centered and impulsive. He was easily frustrated and be came abusive and violent upon the least pretext. . He seemed to be constantly carrying a chip on his shoulder, which he was daring anyone to knock off.
His promiscuous relationships with women were always on a sexual plane. And he wanted to know, "if there was anything else?" when pressed about it.
His hostility to women was easy to discern, so that every woman he met recognized instantly that he disliked them. Yet he needed them for sex and for this he turned to prostitutes whom he seemed to favor. He preferred loose women to well-bred ones, but couldn't understand why.
He was insulting to any who befriended him, and ungrateful to all who helped him. His attitude to Rita was at the same time abusive, insulting and respectful. He said both nice and insulting things about her behind her back, but only insults to her face. He held her in awe and fear, but resented her to the point where he preferred at first to avoid sexual activity with her.
This was his punishment for her, to deprive her of himself. He used sex to barter, trade and convince. Was it good for anything else? Eventually, because he was incapable of building a lasting relationship on a mature basis, he and Rita separated.
He at once returned to Harriet, when several attempts to start affairs with some prostitutes he knew, failed. Harriet "would always be there," he told Rita one day. She was his ace in the hole.
Whenever his brother seemed to be becoming restive over his frequent visits, he would stay away for a while and when he returned, he would be bearing gifts for the entire family.
Meanwhile, from sheer self-defense, Harriet's husband, Ralph, became promiscuous in spite of the fact that it was he, who offered the stability in the family.
By this time, most of the children had left the mother's home and conditions in the family had consequently improved. The oldest girl had been the first to marry. She was living in a nearby town and had built a stable and successful marriage. She and her husband and daughters lived in a lovely home they had bought and she became the model for all the others to follow.
The effect of the incest on the other members of the family was almost nothing, since it had been kept a closely guarded secret and the feeling of esprit d'corps was so great in the family that it would have been guarded if they had learned of it, in any case.
The other unusual factor in this case is the mother's conversion to religion after a youth of looseness and philandering. She became a source of strength and morality in her later days, which she lacked when the children were young.
With better housing and increased income the conditions of the members of the family improved. Also, the example of the older sister was a balance wheel for the younger ones to follow. The next generation will see a complete change in the cultural pattern of the family, thus breaking the closed ingrown circuitry of the family, and thereby affording them opportunity for growth.
All the parties involved here were determined to keep up false appearances. After Rita finally left Johnny, he established several brief alliances with loose women with no satisfaction before returning once again to Harriet.
Johnny represented the past disorganized family life she had left behind, to Harriet. That it still lured her was obvious in that she did not discourage him. Quite the contrary. He would always be around.
Just as Paul would always be around. In any case her sex life was assured. And there would be others. Later, we shall see another case of incest in this same family from a different angle. All these cases arose from the basic disorganization of the family.
Evaluation of Harriet and Paul:
We know that incest does not occur unless there are several predisposing factors present in the environment to start with. Among these are: a basic family disorganization, overcrowding and its consequent lack of privacy, the absence of a strong parent-image with built-in moral and disciplinary guides, and a weak or no father-image to represent authority.
Harriet's family possessed all these weak nesses. In addition to which there was much poverty. The saving factor in this family was the oldest daughter, whose early marriage and consequent escape from the trap which threatened the younger children, enabled her to rise above the environment and better herself and thus became a model for the younger siblings, and incidentally, the mother, herself.
Ralph, whom Harriet finally married, brought his own kind of strength to his marriage, which sustains Harriet and maintains the marriage. The marriage would surely collapse if it were not for Ralph's attitude of seeing and not seeing his wife's weaknesses.
It is inconceivable that he would not be aware of the relationship between his brother and his wife, especially since he retaliated by having one of his own, with one of his wife's sisters, more from pride than from desire.
Also, he maintains the marriage so that the children can have a stable home environment. It is painfully obvious that his wife is not as devoted to the children as he would wish her to be and that she is capable of deserting them, while he is not.
Ralph's attitude is to painstakingly avoid a showdown with his wife over her escapades. That Harriet is drawn to her brother-in-law and felt no guilt, just fear of detection by her husband, is partly due to the fact that she has become inured to the demands of society upon her.
Her own sex habits leave much to be desired as she has developed a compulsive desire for fellatio and cunnilingus as a replacement of cohabiting-except with her brother Paul. Several of her affairs, including that with her brother-in-law, Johnny, consisted of just that.
We have seen from studies made that this is due to her early conditioning by Paul. Also, Harriet really does not like men, and equates sex, that is, cohabiting with the receipt of "things," i.e., gifts of any sort.
The interesting thing about this involved case is the duration of the relationships under discussion. It is this social worker's feeling that many cases of incest are not reported, simply because they are not unpleasant to the parties involved.
The danger of incest lies exactly in this area. That an incestuous relationship will become so absorbing and desirable, that it will replace a normal marriage relationship and thereby threaten the status of the family, and thus society, since the family is the basic social unit in society.
We see how this is true in both Harriet and Johnny and to some extent Paul who never experienced a legal marriage ceremony. In Johnny's case, he was incapable of doing this.
The saving factor to all concerned is that there is present at all times, the model of the oldest sister who has escaped these difficulties and has built a stable and admirable family relationship in spite of difficulties.
Harriet admires her sister and uses her for a model. She might strive towards that end and thus escape the dangers of disorganization that are inherent in her personality and her own family environment.
Also on the plus side, is Harriet's husband who is a source of strength and a solid father authority-image for the children, as well as for Harriet. That he is admired by the others is seen on Saturdays and holidays, when all the relatives gather at his house to be with him.
The family is ingrown in that it is large enough so that there is no need for the members to go outside of it for companionship. Now that all are married, the ingrown nature has broadened to absorb the marriage spouses.
Harriet is both a willing and able promiscuous woman. From the beginning, she was agreeable to the idea and aided Paul and later, her brother-in-law, Johnny, to commit the incestuous act. It is perhaps her ruthless selfishness that had carried her through so effectively. She appears to be absolutely devoid of guilt, or conscience.
In this case, the pregnancy by her brother was so adroitly handled that no one suspected the incest. Most cases of brother-sister incest which are reported are due to the fact that the sister was an unwilling partner.
It is obvious here that if both parties are willing, the incest will not be disclosed. And herein lies the bitter pill of the problem.
PART THREE
FATHER-DAUGHTER INCEST
The second most prevalent type of incest occurring in our society today is the fatherdaughter type. Most of the reported cases fall into this category, and are usually reported by the unwilling daughters.
This type of incest is by far the most damaging and threatening to the social structure of the family, for it undermines the basic unit of society, the father image, or the authority figure.
Father participants are inclined to continue the incest relationship and to create a pseudomarital state. They also react more intensely and with greater gratification. They are more apprehensive about being detected and are of all the incestuous types, more cautious.
Fathers are also more in a position to control the incestuous situation and because of their greater experience, more knowledgeable in controlling their daughters.
Also, because fathers fear detection and the consequent disapproval of society, fathers tend to abuse, bully, threaten and generally instill fear into their daughters to keep them quiet.
He might even punish other members of the family to prevent them from divulging the truth. Father participants are also more knowledgeable about preventing pregnancy. Even so, most cases are disclosed through the pregnancy, or childbirth of the daughter participants.
The intimidated female participant usually submits to her father easily because as the father image, obeying him becomes easy, and "what father says is right, or he wouldn't say it."
The other greatest wrong inherent in the father-daughter incest is in the fact that the father participant usually becomes unduly possessive and domineering and tries to prevent his daughter from dating and establishing normal social relationships with youths of her own age.
He seeks to isolate her and to substitute himself for any necessary contacts she may have with other people, especially males. Many incestuous fathers are suspicious of their daughters' movements and pleasures and seek to suppress their independence.
It is this, more than anything that sometimes results in the daughter's reporting her father to the authorities. For most incestuous daughters, particularly the promiscuous ones, resent their father's thwarting the development of their social life.
The daughter's attitude is if she can have her father, then he should be broadminded enough to permit her the freedom with a boy friend.
Sometimes the father participant develops an incestuous emotional attraction for his daughter and seeks to supplant his wife, with his daughter as a substitute wife. The emotional attachment may result from genuine affection or from possessive lust. The incestuous love then becomes very absorbing and dominates the family set up, thus threatening the siblings and the mother.
This can lead to conflict with the other children and/or with the mother who must consider the daughter participant as a love rival, and treat her as such.
The mother in a father-daughter incestuous relationship is usually weak and passive. Often she is promiscuous and neglects the children and the home, for carousing and drinking at the neighborhood tavern.
Often there is no mother in the household and the father elevates the incestuous daughter to the mother status. Often the father will willfully destroy his daughter's romances and disrupt any social relationships with boys. His aim is really to keep his daughter for himself, but he usually explains that the boy "is not good enough" for his daughter.
Frequently this has just the opposite effect for the daughter, resenting her father's interference in her social life would confide in her boy friend who will then report the situation.
Often fathers try to prevent their daughters from marrying, the exception is when the father believes the girl to be pregnant. Then he will allow her to marry, but will not agree to ending the incestuous relationship.
The docile daughter usually submits, but as she gets older, the situation becomes intolerable and the girl rebels and becomes estranged from her father. She either leaves home or reports him to cease his attentions and bullying. In most cases, the daughter eventually rejects the father as a lover.
If the father is a social outgoing type, he will accept the end of the relationship easier than if he is ingrown. The ingrown father tends to make the family his entire life and existence.
In incestuous relationships, the sons usually side with the girl in trying to extricate herself from her father's power. The son then becomes a love rival, in the eyes of the father.
The promiscuous type of father would temporarily desert his daughter for other women but would always renew his relationship eventually. If the daughter is unwilling, the father would beat, bully, threaten, buy her presents and otherwise dominate her into submission.
Such fathers often are poor providers and are usually partially unemployed and depend on their wives for money. Often they are alcoholics, and spend most of their time at the corner taverns.
Most of these fathers are abusive to their wives and often attempt to prostitute them. Most daughter participants are promiscuous to begin with, or become so. Often they become prostitutes and lead lives of debauchery.
A case history will describe the working of this type of relationship in greater detail.
CASE HISTORY: Al and Deborah
Al was a big, heavyset man with a large round face and a very pleasant disposition. He was a very outgoing man who often made jokes and conversed easily.
He had not finished the lower grade school but gave the appearance of being extremely intelligent. His conversation was always sex oriented and his wife who was fairly attractive always agreed with him, no matter what he was talking about.
Al married the oldest daughter of a family of eight children. His mother-in-law was a promiscuous woman, who was well known in all the bars and dives in the neighborhood. The children all raised "themselves and each other." None graduated from high school.
Their father was a truck driver who worked for more than thirty years for the same company. He was a man of mean disposition and uneven temper. Al had been married twice, before he met his third wife.
With each wife he had several children, but he had thirteen children with his third wife. He and his wife seemed to be especially compatible, and shared many interests.
They lived in a five room apartment in an old part of the city. His wife sewed well and kept the children looking neat. She also cooked well and the house was always smelling of good things cooking in the oven or the stove.
Al, himself, was a bully and browbeater at home. He had a "loud mouth" and never hesitated to speak his mind. Nobody but his wife seemed to take him seriously. He had been married for several years and the family was always in serious financial trouble because, Al refused to work and would never stay on a job for any length of time.
His in-laws were all employed and worked steadily, although they were not any better educated than himself. (His wife's brother, Ralph, we have already met as the husband of Harriet.)
Debbie was the oldest girl in the family and looked up to her father. The children were well behaved and had a good relationship with their mother who was of an even disposition and kind to them.
She was very interested in the welfare of the children, but she was excessively dependent on her husband arid ob-eyed his slightest wish. She was submissive and stayed in the background.
Al's brothers-in-law got together and induced him to accept a job with the city's sanitation department and urged him to stay on it. This he did and the finances of the family gradually improved.
The oldest boy, who was mentally retarded, left school and got a job. Together with his father they were planning on getting a house for the mother. Al's wife, Hazel, had a child out of wedlock before marrying Al.
This child, a girl, became pregnant, married and left the home. Of the twelve children (one died) ten were now living at home. The next oldest child was a girl, Debbie. Debbie was a quiet, gentle girl still attending high school. Then it suddenly became apparent that she was pregnant.
She had to leave school to stay home and care for the baby. Hazel took the concession of preparing the food in a weekend private club in town which took her away from home during the evenings over the weekends.
The family seemed to be making progress, when suddenly the daughter Debbie reported to the police that her father had molested her. This the father denied, but Deborah's story was proven beyond doubt.
The girl told a surprising tale to the authorities, but many in the neighborhood mentioned the close family resemblance the grandchildren had to their father and noted the prominent round face.
Debbie explained how when she was about ten, her father had passed her lying on the bed one hot summer day, with most of her clothes off and had stopped and joked with her about her nudity.
He had sat beside her on the bed and had begun exploring and playing with her body. His hand had found her personal parts and had played and stimulated her in adolescent love play.
This had gone on for more than a year, while the father watched the girl grow up with keen interest. He was particularly interested in her development and made sure she ate the proper foods saying, "Debbie had to grow into a nice big girl," much to the chagrin of the other children who resented the special attention Deborah was getting from their father.
The children were all docile and obedient because the father was very stern with them. Two of the children were found to be retarded by this time, and others were suspect. When Debbie was thirteen and had begun to menstruate her father instructed her and ministered to her.
He took pains to explain that now she could get babies, if she allowed the boys to make love to her. Debbie hung her head in embarrassment. She did not like her father to speak to her like that.
The children were all very devoted to their mother, but Hazel never held discussions with them about any subject, and always left that for Al to do.
"Come to me for any information you want," he would tell them. "I'll tell you what you want to know."
Debbie had matured into a tall, robust girl, with a quiet, gentle manner. She was not emotionally or sexually aggressive.
Debbie had been especially conscious of her father's eyes on her in the past weeks. She sought to avoid him without calling attention to it, for she did not want the others to know.
Then one Saturday her father came home obviously under the influence of alcohol. Her mother was out shopping for groceries and the children were on the sidewalk playing. Debbie rose from the chair and started for the kitchen which was located at the other end of the apartment.
The family lived in the ground floor of a two family wooden ramshackle house. As Debbie passed her father where he was lying on a daybed, his hand reached out and clutched her. The girl smelled the alcohol on her father's breath.
She sought to pull herself away from her father. "Why you pulling yourself away from me? Are you afraid of your own father?" Al asked her thickly.
Debbie turned her head away. She didn't answer. Al put the question to her again. "Answer me, girl, when I talk to you!"
Debbie shook her head. "No, Papa. I ain't scared of you."
"Then what you pull yourself away fer? You think I'm dirt or something?"
Debbie realized her father was intoxicated by the slur in his words.
"No, Papa. I don't think that."
"Then come over here and lie down beside me. Lie beside your father."
As the girl hesitated, her father reached out and smacked her hard across her mouth. "Girl, when I give you an order, move. You hear me? MOVE!"
There was no mistaking the anger in the voice and knowing how ugly her father could be when intoxicated, Debbie got in bed and lay beside him.
Her father was quiet for a minute. Then he turned his head towards her. Debbie turned her face away.
"Take your hand and massage my neck fer me," he ordered.
Slowly the girl began massaging her father's neck. Soon he was breathing quietly. Debbie, thinking he was asleep, started to climb over him to get off the bed. As she was hovering over him, she felt his arm grasping her like a vise.
"You feel good to me there. Stay like that!" he commanded her. "Oh, Pa!"
"You heard me, gal. Obey your father!"
Debbie remained straddling her father, her legs spread around him. The position was uncomfortable and she started to cry softly.
"What you crying 'bout? I done anything to hurt you?"
Debbie shook her head in terror. "No, Pa."
"Then shut up and wait until I hurt you."
Her father's hand had released his hold and was now caressing her arm gently. There was something about it that made Debbie shiver. She felt the hand moving up her arm. Then it brushed against her full, well-developed breasts and hovered there.
"You sure got big breasts. Let's see your breasts. I ain't examined them recently. They all right?"
Her father's voice held mock concern. Debbie answered quickly. "They all right, Pa."
"Les see. I gotta see fer myself. Caint take your word fer it."
Slowly the girl unbuttoned her blouse. She was wearing a bra. Her father reached behind her and undid her bra. Debbie's breasts spilled out heavily and jiggled before her. She heard her father suck in his breath.
"You sure got a gorgeous pair. They jiggle like dancing apples."
Her father's voice was thick. His fingers found one of the nipples and began to twirl and pull at it. "Look at how your nipples stand out straight. You know what that mean? You ready! You know what ah mean by 'ready'? You ripe and ready for somebody to take you!"
He held her nipple harder for a minute, then turned her face towards him with his other hand. "You been doing anything wrong, girl?"
Debbie shook her head. "No, Pa."
"You sure? 'Cause if you were, I'll kill the bastard who done it."
"No, Pa. Honest. I ain't done nuthin'."
"I'll soon find out."
And to Debbie's dismay her father bent her leg and tried to examine her delicate girlhood. Debbie struggled to prevent him. "Aw, Pa!"
"Hold still, gal. Lemme see ya!"
But Debbie wouldn't hold still. At last he let her leg drop. Then, she couldn't explain how it happened. Her father was in a condition of sexual arousal.
Debbie thought that during the struggle it had managed somehow to get out, but she wasn't sure. Anyhow, she was sitting on top of his organ and he was hurting her as he penetrated her.
She held herself up afraid to let herself go and afraid to antagonize her father, who was calling down all the threats he could think of on her, to keep her from stopping.
Debbie knew her father would keep his word and beat her if she disob-eyed him. Tears were running down her cheeks silently. A sniffle escaped and her father heard it.
"What you crying 'bout? Ah ain't hurting you none. You take how much of it you want. In that way, it ain't goin' hurt you. Now, c'mon. Put your weight down on it. It ain't goin' hurt, ah tell you."
He pressed down on her shoulder hard and came up against her. Debbie felt the hard power penetrate her maidenhead. She cried out from the sharp pain. Her father was moving and wiggling underneath her and holding her firmly against him. His voice was grunting and choking as he moved and Debbie was sobbing in earnest by this time.
Then her father began to shudder and shake. Soon his shivering stopped. He breathed hard for a few minutes. Debbie sat where she was, afraid to move and ashamed. She knew she was no longer a virgin.
"Ah shouldn't a done that. I sure shouldna. I might get you pregnant."
He was silent for a minute. Then when he spoke to her again, his voice was harsh and brutal.
"You keep quiet about this, you hear? Don't you tell anybody this happened."
Debbie started to cry aloud. "Shut your mouth, girl. Somebody might hear you. Now you git up and let me clean up and look after you. You do as I say and everything will be all right. Nobody need ever know and Pa'll take care of his baby and buy her presents and everything."
Debbie's sobs filled the room. "Hush that, ah say! You jest keep still now. But next time ah'll wear protection. Then you won't get pregnant."
There were many other times when Al cohabited with his daughter, Debbie after that, and each time he forgot to wear protection. Until one day, she was pregnant. Debbie made many futile efforts to escape her father's attention.
While quiet and demure, Debbie was not docile. She had a good conception of what was right and what was wrong. That the incestuous affair had been kept secret for three years was a surprise in such a large family.
After the child was born, Debbie was given an apartment of her own. Her mother took care of the baby while she worked. The father was released and his wife took him back home with no complaints.
To all intents and purposes the incident had never happened-if it weren't for the child. This brings out one important aspect of incest in the family. Where the mother condones her husband, she influences the other members of the family to do the same, and to tolerate him.
Al was received back into the family after his arrest, as if he had never left it and life went on as before.
The affair is never discussed or referred to. Curiously, his relationship with his wife is closer and warmer than before. However, no one has the illusion that he would not commit the same offense again with another daughter, if he got the chance.
Therefore, as soon as the girls reach the age where they can take care of themselves, they are urged to leave the home and set up their own apartment. They are in touch with their mother and the family relations remain warm. Interestingly enough, it is the retarded son who is most devoted to his mother.
EVALUATION
In the incestuous relationship between Debbie and Al, Debbie was averse to the idea of sex with her father. Obviously there was enough organization, perhaps through the warmth of the mother in spite of her submissiveness, to strengthen Debbie in her stand.
That she was afraid of her father was beyond a doubt the reason why she did not report him before her pregnancy. Al, on the other hand, was not as cautious as the father-participant usually is in such cases.
He was fully aware of the need for protection but either was too indolent to take the necessary precautions, or foolishly decided to take a chance.
Also, the incest made no effect on the family during its tenure. None suspected, or, if they did, did not recognize it. The mother's attitude made life in the family, when the father finally returned home, return to normal.
By treating him as she always did, and never refusing to recognize his authority, and by never referring to the incest after it was over with, she established the normal pattern of living for the family and readjusted their temporarily disjointed pieces. There was no antagonism in the family. The same warmth and friendliness is evident. Because of this, the family has a chance to improve itself.
This might come to pass when the family buys the home the parents and the oldest boy are working to get. The oldest girls leave home early, leaving the home for the small children.
Since the girls are essentially nice girls, their chances of marrying and establishing homes of their own, for themselves and their babies are good.
PART FOUR
MOTHER AND SON
Incest between mother and son is the rarest of reported cases. It has been noted that this does not mean that it occurs most rarely, but that instead it is more carefully guarded from disclosure.
While the son who loves his mother too much is known as having an Oedipus complex, the mother who loves her son too much is known as having a Cornelia complex.
The home setting is important in understanding a mother-son incestuous relationship. There is usually only a widowed, or separated mother with her only son, or, if the father is in the home, he is either weak or withdrawn from the family.
The mother is of two types in such a relationship. First, she might be older, ailing, or particularly weak and submissive, so much so that her son could take over the dominance she should be having.
Second, the mother could be strong and overpowering so that her son would be converse, weak and submissive and completely under her domination.
The social relations between the mother and son are of two types in incestuous cases: when the son is the aggressor, the participants could be distant or close in their emotional relationship; when the mother is the aggressor, the relationship could be ambivalent, intimate yet hostile.
Also, it is found that the family sex culture of the mother and son was very loose and flexible. When the father was present, he had little to say about the rearing of the children or the running of the home.
The mother was aggressive sexually and socially and either regulated her children's lives, or she neglected them and considered them a burden, while she centered her interests away from the home.
Or, the mother and son having a harmonious social relationship, perhaps because the son is submissive and is kept isolated from outside relationships, remain under her control, allowing his mother to routinize and regulate his life, although he is not especially dependent upon her economically.
When the son is the aggressor, the mother may try to be sexually distant but the son is aware of her promiscuity and ceases to defer to her as a mother. In most cases, when mother-son incest occurs, no restraining agent is present in the home.
In such cases, the son ceases to think of his mother as a mother, if she has been the aggressor. If he is the aggressor, the son usually has an unstable and ambivalent relationship with his mother, in which there is much hostility.
At the discovery of the incestuous attack, the son is bitter against his mother, especially after receiving his sentence.
He attacks her and maligns her if she had been previously promiscuous. In turn, the mother shows hostility to the son. If there are sibling sisters, they usually line up behind their brother and against their mother.
Of the three types of close family tie incest, a mother-son incest is considered the worst. This is because the mother bears the child (son) and cares for him and nurses him. He needs her to live.
When the son is the aggressor in mother-son incest, there is usually a period when they were separated for a long time so that the socializing relationship of early childhood was minimized. This was also true if the mother was neglectful and did not take adequate care of the child.
The mother affected the family in another important way. It is she who determines the family's sex culture. If the mother's sex culture personally is promiscuous, the son or other siblings will be inclined to promiscuity.
If she is morally strong, the children will absorb a strong sex culture. When the mother is the aggressor in the incest relationship, we find that she has been emotionally close to him. In addition, she has loose sex attitudes and she and her son lack the normal amount of privacy.
Incest behavior confuses familiar roles. In the mother-son incest relations, when either the mother or son reject the other, a mutual estrangement results and the spurious motherson relationship becomes disrupted. When both continue the incest relationship, the son assumes a quasi-husband role and in some instances, the father role. But in so doing, he destroys the mother-son relationship.
After detection, the lines of family conflict vary. In this mother-son incest relationship, when the mother is the aggressor, there may be some conflict between the father (when he is present) and the mother, or between the father and the son. In general, there may not be any conflict between the mother and son unless the son has other attachments.
When the son is the aggressor, there is definite conflict between mother and son, while the attitudes of the other family members, if there are any, are contingent upon the mother's, previous treatment of them.
It affects the son permanently as "the man with the extreme mother fixation finds easy excuses to avoid marriage,, or, if he brings himself to try it, an early divorce is likely to result."
These are the words of the noted scientist, E. Burgess in his book, "Predicting Success or Failure in Marriage."
Another researcher, has found that happiness in marriage is related to attraction of parents of the opposite sex-The wife who is happily married and who regards her father as physically attractive tends to see similarities between her husband and her father. The wife who is unhappily married tends to see the differences.
MOTHER-SON:
CASE HISTORY: Jeff and Louise: son, the aggressor.
Louise was a comparatively young mother. Still in her thirties and very attractive, she lived alone with her son, Jeff, a boy of twenty-two, in a small apartment. She was separated from her husband and had raised the boy alone.
In the early years of the boy's life, it had been difficult to make ends meet. The boy's father had deserted them during his infancy. Louise had supported him from her earnings as a beautician.
She had no other children and she had given Jeff the best of everything she could afford. Jeff had grown up feeling very possessive of his mother. He had a good warm relationship with Louise and they were friends, as well as mother and son.
Louise had been young when Jeff was born and her friends all urged her to marry again because a "woman can't raise a boy in the city." Louise had remained silent but she had vowed that she would succeed.
During the years that the boy was growing up, she had received many proposals of marriage but had rejected all because she was afraid she would have a step-father problem over her son. The thought of any man mistreating Jeff was more than she could bear.
Jeff made friends easily and moved in a circle of boys his own age, but as he reached the puberty years, the circle began to split into splinters. Some of the boys went to other towns. Some went away to school. Others moved away. Jeff had decided to go to a special school nearby because he did not want to leave his mother alone, although he had not told her this in words.
The truth is that both Jeff and Louise held guilt feelings over the other. In Louise's case, she felt guilty about separating from Jeff's father. She felt that it was somehow her fault that the boy had been deprived of his father. Jeff felt responsible for her welfare and felt in addition that she would have formed a permanent attachment with another man, if it had not been for him.
This brought them both closer together. The attachment between them was very strong. They were like pals more than mother and son. Jeff had early picked up the habit of calling his mother by her first name.
An incident occurred one day that was meaningful and indicative of their relationship and the future course their lives would take. They went out frequently together. On one of these trips, they were taken for brother and sister. At another occasion when they had gone to a resort for a holiday outing, the hotel clerk had taken Jeff for Louise's husband.
The boy was very tall and heavily built for his age. He looked at least ten years older than his age and Louise on her part looked at least twenty years younger than hers.
It pleased Jeff that his mother looked young enough to pass as his sister, but there was an undercurrent of feeling he did not understand. Louise did not consciously try to dominate Jeff.
It was just that the youth so admired and adored her that he accepted what she told him without question. Louise, on the other hand, lived her life around the boy. It never occurred to Louise that she was sublimating her emotional life around the youth's life.
Nevertheless, Jeff was having problems. He had many friends but somehow none of his friendships with girls seemed to jell. In the end he got into the habit of coming home to Louise and telling her everything that happened.
One day Louise started teasing him about a girl he seemed particularly interested in. He had taken the girl out a few times and had not yet had sexual relations with her. After this date, they were lying on Louise's bed since it was late, Louise had already retired when Jeff got back home from his date. He had sprawled across the bed to tell his mother all about it.
"So what happened? Don't tell me nothin' happened now, Jeff. That would be too much!"
Louise started laughing. Jeff shared her jolly mood. He had had more than his usual amount of liquor that evening and his head was still feeling the effects.
"Now, Lou, stop teasing me! We just went out and had some drinks and feeling the way I do now-I'd say that we had too many!"
"Aw c'mon, Jeff! You can carry your liquor. I'm talking about the other load you're carrying."
Louise started laughing again. She reached over to him and poked him in the chest. Jeff grabbed her hand to stop her. They started wrestling in fun. Somehow Louise's nightgown slipped off her shoulder and exposed one of her breasts.
Jeff stared as if hypnotized at the firm, luscious ball that was his mother's breast, only he was not thinking of her as his mother just then. As he stared at the breast, he saw the pink nipple expand and stand erect.
He took a deep breath and reached out without realizing what he was doing and touched the nipple.
"Lou, why does the nipple stand up like that?"
Louise felt her son's tension. She knew she should say something to control the moment, but somehow she could not. She was responding to the excitement she was feeling inside Jeff.
Also, she had always answered all Jeff's questions honestly and directly without hedging. She could find no reason why she should hedge at this time.
"Why, honey, have you never seen a girl's breasts before and never touched the nipple?" she asked curiously.
Louise was to relate later to her analyst that she could find no ulterior meaning behind her question. It just seemed the natural thing to say.
Jeff shook his head. He stared as if fascinated at his mother's breasts. "Did I nurse you when I was a goo-goo, Lou?"
Louise nodded. A tender look came into her eyes at the memory of the baby the boy had been.
"Yes, honey. You sure did. You used to pull at these same nipples and suck them just as good. You were sure a greedy baby. Always hungry."
Jeff reached out and gently held one nipple in his hand. "Can I touch it, Lou?"
"I guess so."
Jeff felt the nipple hard between his fingers begin to expand. Then he did a strange thing. He bent his head and engulfed the nipple between his lips and began to suckle it. There had been no intent or premeditated purpose behind the movement.
Louise was startled and shaken by the action on the part of her son. By the time she got to her senses, Jeff was pulling and suckling at her breast with a hunger that could not be denied. He was making tiny, suckling noises like the ones he made as a baby when he nursed that same breast.
The memory flooded Louise and made her momentarily immobilized. Then it was too late for her to do anything. She was on fire. The suctioning went on on her breasts. She felt her body arch and tighten in the throes of sexual passion.
"Oh, ohhhh!" The cry burst from her lips involuntarily.
It was a cry of pleasure, torment and guilt. It held hope that was lost, guilt and shame and sensuality. Jeff did not let go of the breast. In the passion of his young manhood he reached out blindly for the other breast and clung to it.
Louise was now a writhing mass of sensuality. She reacted instinctively. Years of pent-up, unsatisfied longing expressed themselves at the moment. Her body churned and twisted on the bed.
Without thinking, her hand in its threshing movements brushed against Jeff's erected penis. Her fingers unzipped his fly and released the virginal penis that was enormous and distended in a mature arousal.
Louise began masturbating Jeff. Jeff's lips tightened around the nipples sending Louise into an ecstasy of desire. Her fingers caressed and manipulated the large maleness of him. Jeff was certainly very well-endowed.
All her woman-hunger and loneliness over powered her. Neither of them could remember how it happened. But it did. Jeff was astride Louise and he was plunging deep. Louise clung to him and responded perfectly to his movements. It was as if they had been lovers for a long time and had learned to match their feelings perfectly.
Everything about their actions was perfectly attuned. Each knew psychically when to plunge, roll, and writhe. Their passion rose and ebbed simultaneously. They spun together. Whirled in space. Jeff's lips were glued to Louise's.
Their bodies were united in a hot cauldron of consuming fire. Then the moment of their climax came and each sensed it and matched intensity. Jeff moved like a piston. Louise blended with his body as if they were one and the same.
When the moment of climax came, it was as one.
Jeff's body grew rigid. Louise clung to him, her legs entwined about his waist. His flesh was lost deep into her woman-softness. Then the cry came and heaven crashed down on Louise.
She was lost in the almost-unconscious world of the climax when Jeff cried out in sweet agony. "Mother!"
Louise was too near the climax to stop.
At the cry her body arched in protest as if stabbed. But Jeff was not aware of the agony he had caused her. He would not know until after many copulations that he would call out, "Mother!" in just the same way each time, no matter how many times he had performed the act, or with how many different women.
Later he would learn to make his cry silent, but it would always be the same. The one word, "Mother!" at the moment of his greatest ecstasy.
To Louise, it was both punishment and an indictment. The joy went out of her heart. She clung and was still as Jeff's seething body quieted. When at last he moved, there was no shame or regret in Jeff's words or manner. He stared at his mother and gently kissed away the tears. He answered her unspoken indictment. "We didn't plan it, want it or do anything to make it happen. It just did, Lou. No need to feel bad about it."
He took her limp hand and kissed each finger. "Besides, it was beautiful. I shall never know such beauty with anyone else again. I know it."
Through her tears Louise smiled at her son. It was true. Through some fluke of fate or nature, it had been both perfect and beautiful. She touched his lips, outlining them with her fingers. She would not spoil her son's future because of her guilt.
"Yes, darling. It was very beautiful. And you will know many such times in the years to come."
But somehow with the same prescience that had made the act so beautiful, she knew that he was right. It would never be just that beautiful for him with anyone else.
They never repeated the act even though both ached for it many times thereafter. Louise could see the effect she had on her son subsequently when at the sight of her preparing for bed, his arousal was immediate and vigorous, as if taunting them and reminding them of the beauty it had known. Louise would ache and retire to her room.
She knew something had to be done. One day she suggested to Jeff that he go away to college. Jeff agreed knowing the cause of the suggestion. Shortly after the boy left, Louise married a man she did not love but who was kind and in the position to care for her.
She knew that put her out of danger. Later she would visit an analyst to rid herself of the feeling of guilt that still persisted. But it was the moment she would never forget, would always remember as the most beautiful in her life, that haunted her when her husband made love to her.
She found sex distasteful with him, and she was unable to respond to his caresses no matter how hard she tried. The lips were not the same, the sensitivity was not there and nothing was beautiful any more. It was this more than the feeling of guilt that sent her to the analyst.
Eventually she was to find release through understanding. Jeff married a girl in the college town. Louise and her husband attended the ceremony. The tie had been broken.
But the tie had been broken only because distance separated them. Louise and Jeff had stared at each other. And again the common feeling of gold, incense and myrrh had flowed between them. It would always be beautiful and dangerous between them.
Tears were in Louise's eyes as she had kissed her son goodbye. And longing and love that would not die were etched in Jeff's face. "Mother!" Louise turned and walked away from danger.
EVALUATION: Louise and Jeff.
Sometimes there occurs between two people a perfect understanding. Such an understanding existed between Louise and her son. Having grown up almost together, they were perfectly attuned to each other.
The moment of their incestuous act had not been planned. It just happened. Undoubtedly, the abstinence that was enforced by Louise's celibate state had lent greater intensity to her passion.
Jeff, in the first flush of his manhood, had responded in full measure. Since they liked each other as well as loved, their emotional communion was complete. It was to Louise's credit that her training of the youth had been so refined, that he had enough inner strength to accept it matter-of-factly without remorse, savoring only the beauty of the act and none of the implications of evil.
But Louise as the mother accepted the full weight of the guilt. She should have stopped it, she told herself since she knew better. But try as she could, she could not feel really guilty about it. Jeff s attitude toward it steadied her. Had she been able to carry over the same emotion to her new husband, the matter might have died there.
But she could not. The response was missing. And the trigger was absent from the gun. It was an effort to unconsciously recapture the indescribable beauty with her new sex partner that sent her to the analyst.
She knew that there would always be that beautiful spark between her and her son. She did not bother to worry about it. It sat as a warm rosy glow on her face whenever they met. It shone like a starry light in the young man's eyes whenever he looked on his mother.
Undoubtedly there are many such cases of incest between mother and son which go unreported yearly. The type of incest would be hard to understand, so few of the participants care to reveal it.
The position motherhood is held makes this so. It is so easy to condemn that the parties involved feel safer in remaining silent. The trouble is that often they need help badly and because of fear of censure, do not get it.
Of course, not all cases of mother-son incest are of the type discussed above. Some are the action of psychopathic personalities or depraved mentalities. Some occur among people of low mentalities and alcoholics.
Most often, the reported cases fall into one of these categories-the depraved, ignorant and unfortunate. Many writers have written of incest between mother and son. Lawrence's SONS AND LOVERS readily comes to mind. There are numerous examples.
Perhaps, the pages of history are filled with the open and concealed love of mother for son, and son for his mother. Freud has not fully explained the Oedipus complex. Nor does the Cornelia complex begin to touch on the ramifications of the interrelationship between a mother and her son.
These pages are yet to be written. As man kind broadens his knowledge and his understanding, incest will no longer be a word to whisper, and then we might know a great deal more than we know now.
The word will no longer fill us with horror, no longer ring with fear and shame. For comprehension removes stigma. What is presently ugly, can be made beautiful with sympathy and understanding.
PART FIVE
AUNT AND NEPHEW
The lesser the degree of consanguinity, the more common the occurrence of incest becomes, and the rarer are the cases reported.
This is particularly true of the aunt-nephew; and uncle-niece type of incest. It has been said that more uncles and aunts initiate their nieces and nephews into the world of sex than are dreamed of in scientific studies made about them.
The fact that it is easy to do this without detection makes it also easy to avoid detection and reporting, as well as to prolong it into adult life.
In this type of incest relationship, it is usually the adult member of the kinship who seduces the other into the incestuous relationship. It is this writer's feeling that this type of deviation is quite prevalent but is disguised as being purely a proper interest in a relative.
One characteristic of this type of incest is its lack of intensity because it is not a part of the familial household. Usually one of the parties lives elsewhere. Because it can occur only when the two parties get together, the relationship is fleeting and has an aura of casualness that is lacking in the closer kinships.
Another characteristic, is that the incestuous relationship does not threaten the family, or disrupt the structure of the home. It can go on simultaneous with others or another, it can be as fixed or resilient as the parties involved.
A third characteristic is that it is the older member of the relationship who maintains the continuity of the incestuous relationship. We will restrict ourselves to the situations wherein the aunt is the older of the two people involved in the relationship.
An aunt is a wonderful relative to have. The nephew can visit her and usually will receive gifts and attention that he would not ordinarily receive from a member of the family residing in the same household.
Also, one does not see one's aunt every day. Aunts sometimes develop special fondness for nephews whom they had cared for from childhood. Often the nephew is the child of a favored sister or brother.
Sometimes the nephew is particularly attractive physically, or might have a personality that is pleasing to a particular aunt. When the aunt is also a godparent, the incest is likely to occur off and on throughout the nephew's lifetime, or until the nephew breaks it off.
Another distinguishing characteristic of this type of relationship is that the burden of continuing it rests basically on the nephew who can throw it off as he matures and creates distance between himself and his aunt.
The ease of creating and discontinuing this type of incestuous relationship is due to: (1) it does not evoke the intense horror and dread as does the father-daughter relationship or the other closer kinships. An aunt is not usually the head of the nephew's household. Also, she is rarely the authority symbol. She is most often a visitor to the home, or the object of a visit.
The time spent with one's aunt is small in contrast to the closeness and proximity of the closer kins. There are of course situations when aunts raised a sister's or brother's child or children and therefore became in effect the head of the household.
Should incest develop between an aunt in such a position and her nephew, then she would be in effect having an incestuous mother-son relationship, for she would then be a mother image.
We are restricting this discussion to an aunt in a normal position as a close relative of the family with living quarters outside of the home.
The conditions under which an incestuous relationship could take place would be similar to that of the other types of incest. There must first be a loose sexual quality about the home predisposing the nephew and the aunt toward such an occurrence. There must also be promiscuity on the part of the aunt to impel her to consummate such an incestuous act.
The burden of initiating such an act does not always rest on the aunt for some aunts are younger than their nephews, and in such cases their positions of responsibility would be reversed.
Without a background of promiscuity incest between an aunt and her nephew could not occur. The relationship can be maintained in complete secret indefinitely because of the disconnection between the household of the parties involved.
We shall look at a case history to better understand this process in action.
Marge was the oldest of three sisters. She was also the most successful of the three. This was partly because she had married at an early age, separated shortly thereafter without having had a child, and had not remarried.
Both of Marge's sisters had large families, but as Bill grew into manhood, Marge had begun to develop a special fondness for him. The boy was attractive, and virile long before the age of puberty.
Marge could not help make him her favorite. She had often wished that he could have been her son. She began to treat him with special attention, which Bill soon learned to utilize to his own advantage.
By the time the boy was sixteen, he had become very spoiled by his doting aunt. The other children did not resent this for they were in turn favorites of the other aunt. Bill had the habit of visiting his aunt at odd hours in the evening when he thought she was at home from work, or spending most of Saturday with her.
When the family wanted Bill, they knew if he was not at home he could be found at his Aunt Marge's. Bill and his aunt became quite close as the years passed. She was always understanding, full of sympathy, always tended his needs, fed him and bought him gifts of clothing and other useful items.
Bill grew to depend on his aunt. She was not much older than his mother, but looked to be much younger as she had not had a difficult time or any responsibilities, as her sister often reminded her.
Marge was gay. Her home was always full of music, and dancing and there was always someone, a gentleman friend calling on Marge and visiting with her. She had a good job and her apartment was much prettier than his own home.
Bill liked to stay over and spend the night with his aunt, but on this his mother frowned, although he managed to go to his aunt's home at least once or twice a week.
Bill grew into a strapping, athletic boy. He had a slow, sensuous walk and a slow uncertain way of speaking that his aunt found particularly appealing. The truth was that Bill was a slow, though not dull, intelligence type person.
He liked to take his own time to do things, and in his own way. He was in conflict with the other children at home who were faster moving, and brighter than he was. For this reason he developed a slight stutter. His aunt never hurried him. And he liked the quiet of his aunt's apartment when she had no visitors.
When Bill was sixteen his aunt gave him a key to her apartment with the admonition that he should always knock before using it. One day, Bill forgot to knock and entered the apartment with the key.
He stood in the foyer. The house was very quiet. He thought his aunt was out and decided to fix something to eat and play some records. He was about to move into the kitchen when he heard a sound coming from his aunt's bedroom.
He listened intently. It was low and deep. It sounded like a man's voice. Then he heard his aunt's low voice. Bill's throat constricted. His aunt had a caller. He knew his aunt had frequent lovers. That did not bother him.
The truth was that he had never thought of it before this. He wondered if he should leave or call out. Then he heard a grunt with a particular quality that excited him. He listened, rooted to the spot.
As he listened, he became sexually stimulated and he opened his pants and began masturbating. Like most boys he had masturbated frequently. This time he had been excited by a quality in his aunt's voice.
He heard her voice again. It reached him deep and low, a low gurgling thrill of extreme pleasure. Bill's hand moved on his penis faster and faster. Then he heard his aunt give a little scream.
From where he stood he heard the cry distinctly. His body shook with the tremor of sexual excitement. The man's voice answered his aunt. There was much noise on the bed now. And a frenzied quality to the sounds that set Bill aflame.
He had reached a climax but still he manipulated his distended penis. He had never known such intense excitement. His sex activity had been playful, cursory or brief with the girls of his own age.
As he jerked his hand furiously along the length of his penis, feeling the heat boiling along his groin and thighs his aunt cried out again. This time it was in the climax. "Ohhh, I'm almost ... !"
The man's answering voice swept Bill on a wave of passion so great that it lifted him and carried him to the crest of an unbelievable ejaculation. He felt as if his insides would never stop gushing from his body.
He had managed to have his own climax simultaneously with his aunt's. When he was finished, he leaned back weakly along the wall trying to get his strength back and trying not to make any noise.
As soon as he could manage his wobbly legs, he went out the door again and stood in the hall collecting himself. Then he went down the stairs and returned later in the day.
When he got to his aunt at that time, her visitor had left. She was lying on the sofa in a soft, fluttering gown with a drink in her hand. Bill knew that his aunt loved a good time and spent her time and money drinking and taking flying trips wherever she fancied.
Whenever any member of the family criticized her way of living, Bill had been in the habit of defending his Aunt Marge. This had brought her closer to him and vice versa. Now a new element entered into his thinking of his aunt. He saw her a new way after the incident in the hallway.
There was at this time no premeditated action in Bill's mind. But the memory of what had happened and its effect on him still stirred him and stayed fresh with him. He knew he would never forget it.
When he entered the apartment after ringing the bell, his aunt greeted him by waving the glass in her hand at him.
"Very much on time," she called out to him in her husky voice. "You came in time to have a drink with me. Go fix yourself one. I was just beginning to feel sorry for myself being so alone. I hate being alone!"
Bill went over to the sideboard and poured Scotch and fizzed soda into the glass. Then he joined his aunt on the sofa. She looked relaxed and lovely as always. This time Bill looked and saw other things he had never seen before.
His aunt was very attractive he decided after staring at her. He saw the full, thrusting breasts pressing against the soft material of her gown. One leg peeped free of the garment and rested on the sofa.
"What you staring at me so for? Never seen me before?"
He didn't answer. Since he spoke rarely, this didn't cause any comment from his aunt.
She was a gregarious, voluble woman and found Bill's quietness, a good foil for her own personality. Bill downed his drink and finished another one while his aunt rattled away.
He was a little drunk but not intoxicated by the time he had finished the third drink. His aunt still stretched out on the sofa indolently.
"How come you staying so long on the sofa?" Bill finally asked her.
Marge stared at him. "I'm tired. I just feel like lazing today."
"What you been doing?"
"Nothin' much. Had a friend earlier but he left...."
"I know."
His aunt stared at him. Bill's face was puffed up with repressed feeling. He kept his face averted. As his aunt stared, he lifted his eyes and stared at her legs. Suddenly Marge knew what was bothering Bill.
She opened her arms and called him to her as she used to do when he was younger. "Cm here."
Bill stared at her. Again his aunt called to him. "Cm on. Gimme some."
At the familiar request, Bill's face flushed hotly. He got up and fell to his knees before Marge who ran her hands through his hair and played with his face. She knew that he had been there before.
"You been here earlier?" she asked him softly.
Bill didn't answer. For an answer, he buried his head in the folds of her dress in her lap. "You heard us...."
Bill grunted. He was beginning to feel hot all over.
Marge gave a low laugh. "Bill, you know what ails you? You jealous! Poor baby. You got no need to be jealous. I love you."
At the soft, croony sound of Marge's voice, Bill felt his penis erecting. Without knowing what he was doing he began pulling at Marge's clothing. Soon he had her thighs exposed. Marge made no resistance.
She lay back and allowed him to pull up her dress and play with her. She gave a contented sigh as his fingers found the depths of her vagina and he began to manually masturbate her.
"Ah! Billy, I always knew one day we would be doing this, I always knew it."
Then her hands found his head and guided him to her groin into a cunnilingual act. It was the first time for Bill. But he had drunk enough to be insensible to anything except the erotic pleasure he was receiving.
At the same time, Marge performed fellatio on him. Then before he could lose his erection completely, Marge made Bill straddle her and perform copulation. After that, they drank some more and talked.
There was never any feeling of guilt on the part of either Marge or Bill. The incestuous relationship between Bill and his aunt went on for many years and deep into Bill's manhood.
Each time he would meet a girl with whom he would be willing to form a permanent relationship, his aunt would break it up. One day Bill met a girl who interested him greatly. He was now almost thirty-five years old and was thinking of settling down.
He had never been able to hold a job. He had no needs, for his aunt supplied him with money. He spent his time hanging around the poolrooms and standing at the street corners. Although everyone criticized him, Marge always came to his defense and told him he could do whatever he wanted. She would pay his room rent because he had left home long ago.
Bill made the mistake of bringing the girl to meet Marge. Marge took the girl aside and warned her about Bill. She frightened the girl by telling her that Bill was mean and no good and didn't like women. She succeeded in breaking up that romance as she had all the others unknown to Bill.
By the time Bill discovered what his aunt was doing, he was past caring. He had relaxed himself to being kept by his aunt, and making love to her and just drifting, a bum on the streets.
EVALUATION:
This is a particularly pathetic case of domination through incest that destroys. Bill's aunt was a selfish, self-centered woman who intended to keep Bill for her own particular sexual use.
A highly sensual woman, she gradually developed Bill to the position of lover at her beck and call on a personal stud service. Bill, initially insecure, found himself lost in a morass of lust and passion with no ambition or initiative to accomplish anything.
Until his aunt loses her attractiveness and appeal or until something unusual happens to cause Bill to snap out of it, he will continue to drift in the morass he is led by a highly promiscuous woman.
Bill has become more ingrown and looks the part of the bum everyone claims he is, a man drifting without a purpose, or roots in life.
PART SIX
UNCLE AND NIECE-COUSINS-IN-LAWS-STEP-RELATIVES-HALF-RELATIVES
The farther away the blood kinship is from parenthood the less shame, guilt and horror it evokes. While sexual relationships between participants related as listed above is considered illegal and frowned upon by the church and most religions, there is an absence of the degree of shame, and the intensity of feeling is absent.
It is now common for cousins to marry, especially third cousins.
In former ages, primitive society frowned upon sexual union between a man and his sister-in-law, or a woman and her husband's brother, today this is not considered taboo in Western Society. Often a man marries his dead wife's sister. It is considered good sense particularly when there are many children left to be cared for.
This is not especially so in regards to step and half-relatives. The horror evoked, when members of the same consanguined blood lines have sexual intercourse, exists in the step-and half-relative, partly because of the closeness of the blood connections.
The thinking and feeling is that in-laws are related through marriage, but step-and half-relatives are usually related through the blood line of one of the parents in one hand and indirectly through both parents on the other.
Nevertheless, there is always present a feeling of guilt and shame on the part of incest participants in these groups. We have listed under the heading of Brother-Sister the history of Harriet and Paul and indicated that Harriet was simultaneously having an incestuous relationship with her brother-in-law, Johnny.
We will bring in a few additional points here.
We saw that Harriet personally disconnected her alliance with her brother-in-law when it became apparent that Johnny's common-law wife, Rita, knew of the affair and objected to it. Since she threatened to disclose its existence, Harriet thought it best to end the relationship.
We saw also that it was to be only a temporary one, for Johnny would revert to Harriet again and again whenever he was unable to obtain a woman, or incapable of getting a temporary sex partner. The point being that Harriet married to his brother was readily available.
This is the point behind all the above. They are readily available because they are always in the family and can be possessed without trouble and/or suspicion on the part of other members of the family.
This is the grave danger in this type of incestuous relationship that will go on and on and thus threaten the family. While Harriet did not feel any guilt due to her early conditioning and great promiscuity, it was Johnny who was beset with shame and fear that the affair would be revealed.
The case of incest between uncles and nieces is more involved. This also holds fear and horror if revealed. More shame and disgust is levied on the uncle in such a liaison than on the niece, who is inclined to get the sympathy of the public if the affair is disclosed.
Like the case of aunts and nephews, uncles and nieces are commonly involved in incest. This is done without the intense feeling evoked by the brother-sister incest relationships.
Often a strong feeling of empathy and understanding exists between uncle and niece. Many uncles take the place of their brothers in raising and educating their nieces. Perhaps it is this father substitute role that causes the deep feeling of disgust at incest disclosure.
This also has been forbidden through the ages. But the pages of history is full of such examples. A case history will prove our point. When the uncle-niece incest relationship exist, great care is taken to conceal it and this is proven in that few cases are reported.
Incest is more likely to occur when the uncle holds the position of authority in the home and is a father substitute. Since the nieces are not daughters, there is likely to be a lessening of the fear and shame attached to the act as in the father-daughter relationship.
When the incest occurs in the framework of niece and uncle, then the uncle is more cautious and careful of disclosure.
CASE HISTORY: Uncle and Niece Alice and Richard
Alice was born in Poland. She was brought to this country when she was a small child by her mother. Her uncle, Richard, was a pharmacist with his own small store. Her uncle was attached to her mother. He was the youngest male in a family of thirteen children.
Uncle Richard, like all new immigrants, had high ambitions for his niece. He had married and had a son who was with his mother in Europe. Uncle Richard's wife said she could not live in the U. S. because the climate did not agree with her asthma.
Uncle Richard was always on the lookout for a woman and Alice had heard her mother say many times, that her Uncle Richard was immoral because he had so many different women.
Alice was fond of her uncle. First, because he was the only one she had; and second, because her uncle was fond of her and always made a big fuss over her. He would introduce her to his friends and said he wanted her to marry a doctor and that she had to go to college. He would see to that.
Alice couldn't understand why her mother never wanted her to stay alone with her uncle. Her mother said that she didn't trust her brother. Alice thought that was very strange and didn't like it but she never protested.
She liked to visit her uncle at his pharmacy for he always taught her things and showed her how to mix and compound the drugs in making up prescriptions and Alice enjoyed herself reading the labels on the bottles and the cosmetics that were in the cases.
Then one day, Uncle Richard was behind the counter that was partitioned off from the front part of the store when she got there, and she had to go back there to talk to him.
Her uncle went on mixing something, then put it carefully in a bottle and told Alice to put the label on the bottle. Alice did as she was told and her uncle called the messenger he used, to deliver it.
Uncle Richard was a small wiry man. He had a nervous habit of always chewing the inside of his cheek. But everyone said how bright he was and what a good pharmacist he was, so Alice was proud of him.
When the messenger had left with the medicine, Alice went to stand out front to look at something in the window but her uncle called to her. She went back in and found her uncle playing with his penis.
Alice was only thirteen and very naive because she hadn't yet learned how to be a one hundred percent girl. She stared at her uncle. She wasn't afraid, ashamed or anything like that. It just struck her as curious that he would play with himself.
He wasn't jerking at himself. He was simply fondling himself, playing with it and rubbing it. It looked limp and small in his hands and Alice stared at it, for this was the first time she had ever seen one, and surely the first time she had seen her uncle's.
Her uncle began chewing at his cheek furiously and Alice knew that he was agitated, for he chewed like that when he was excited over anything.
He stared at her and called to her. She went up close to him and she was standing almost taller than he was. She had developed early into a big girl. Her breasts were full and pushed out and her hips were curved and rounded in her dresses.
Her uncle stared at her and chewed furiously. "Touch here," he told her.
Alice reached out and touched the penis where he pointed and drew her hand back. It was warm and felt like gristle. She was surprised.
"Hold it. Don't let go of it," her uncle said then.
His voice was funny, Alice noticed.
Alice reached out and held the penis. Immediately it swelled and fit her hand exactly. She was astonished. No one had told her anything about sex. Her mother had always said that sex was bad and men were bad and that she should stay away from both, but that was all.
She knew that the thing she was holding was related to sex. Her uncle had scolded her mother for not telling her things one day.
Now as she held her uncle's penis she felt it come to life in her hands. She began to feel a strange excitement but she thought it was because she was doing something bad and felt guilty. She knew she would get a beating if her mother ever found out. Her mother was very strict with her.
"Push up and down like this," her uncle ordered, demonstrating how he meant.
Alice did as she was told and saw her uncle's face flushing. He began to make strange huffs and puffs, at the same time the penis kept growing.
"Bend over and let me touch you a little ... Right at the edge."
Alice shook her head. She was afraid. She could see her mother beating her already.
"I won't hurt you. Just at the edge," her uncle repeated.
Alice was standing near to him so now he moved and went behind her. Before Alice knew what was happening, he had whipped up her dress and was pushing his penis in her back. Because she was standing with her legs close together, he couldn't perform a complete act of sodomy.
Alice could feel the warm intruder bumping against the back part of her thigh and buttock. She began to feel a new kind of feeling she had never felt before. Her loins began to throb and her breasts hurt. She wanted to feel something all the way. Very deep. She was ashamed and afraid of the way she felt at the same time.
Her uncle made her open her legs so he could penetrate deeply. She bent over as her uncle pushed between her legs. He stayed there and made no deeper penetration.
But it felt good. Suddenly Alice wanted him so much that she wanted to take his organ with her own hand and fit it in, but she was ashamed. Then just as she was about to do it, somebody came into the store out front and her uncle had to stop and attend to the customer.
Soon after that Alice went home. Her mother didn't let her go back to the store for a long time. But one day she did. Her heart was beating with excitement. She wondered if her uncle would do it some more.
Up to that time, she had never had anybody try to do that to her. No one had even mentioned it to her. Now she was excited and waiting. When she got to the store, her uncle had some friends. They were doctors he said, talking to him about business matters. Alice waited and waited. She felt an itching in her groin and she couldn't stand still.
Then at last they left and she and her uncle were alone. But before he could talk to her, a customer came in and they were never alone anymore that day. Alice was very upset. She cried before going to bed that night.
The next time she went to the store she didn't have any expectation of anything. But this time her uncle was alone and again he took her in the back and tried to sodomize her. This time Alice bent over and her uncle worked until he was performing normal intercourse.
He gave a hard plunge and consummated his desire. The hymen wouldn't give. It was hard and difficult work and her uncle was very angry and frustrated before long. Finally, he held her by her shoulder and pulled her to him and at the same time he gave another great plunge.
Alice felt a great tearing and hurting. She cried out. But at the same time it felt good.
Her uncle was like a man out of his mind. He held her tight and couldn't seem to stop.
He told her later, she was very tight and it had been lovely. Alice never forgot that day. Suddenly her uncle was shivering and shaking and almost crying. He was thrusting himself hard and deep and Alice knew that he couldn't stop even if he had to.
Then he cried out real loud and shook and held her tight. Alice didn't feel anything like he was feeling. It was just the same good feeling all the time her uncle had been doing it to her.
He told her later that she hadn't erupted because she had to learn how to respond. Alice knew she liked it and wanted him to continue, but he stopped and said he couldn't do any more that day.
After that, she wanted some whenever she went to her uncle. But her uncle would never come in her anymore. He insisted on wearing protection because, he told her, her mother would kill him if she got pregnant.
Up to now they always had done it standing up with Alice crouching so he could take her easily. Alice used to get tired in her knees and didn't like that. She thought there must be another way to do it, so she wouldn't get tired of standing up. It was not until five years later, when she eloped during her college semester that she knew how else it could be done.
Her uncle never did it to her anymore after that because her mother never let her go back. She must have sensed something was wrong. Soon after that Alice went away to college and when she got back, it was to find her uncle critically ill in a hospital.
Alice felt very unhappy. After her uncle died, it was as if a part of her had died with him. She wanted him to live forever for he had been the first to touch her and the memory had become important to her.
The early habit of getting it from the back stayed with her and later and all through her life, that was the position she liked best, lying on her side and being made love to from the back. She had an abnormal lust for sodomy.
So it was that every time she made love that way, she remembered her uncle. It was her uncle who had taught her how to take care of herself afterwards and what to do to prevent herself from getting pregnant.
She discovered when she got to college that she had very valuable information and all the girls used to come to her for advice. But soon Alice stopped telling anybody about it. It didn't seem fair to her uncle somehow. All her life her uncle, although dead, had a special place in her heart.
EVALUATION:
Alice was a naive child who had lived an isolated life until coming to the city. Her uncle had initiated her into the joys of sex. She was a precocious girl, who matured early and was quite ready for the experience she was being introduced to.
Because her uncle was sophisticated and knowing, she did not become pregnant. It was not promiscuity, but maturity that made her so ready and willing for the experience her uncle was exposing her to.
After her uncle's death, she was left stranded, ready for sex, with no means of getting it. She was not aggressive enough, or independent enough to seek it out. College was the only opportunity she had to obtain it.
However, her early childhood conditioning had so filled her with fear of her mother, that she was inhibited to experiment, with the possibility of pregnancy hovering over her. So she did the next best thing.
She eloped with the first man who gave her the opportunity. The marriage didn't work out exactly as one would have predicted, for the man she married was more than twice her age and impotent.
The period of time Alice lived with him was filled with horror and frustration for Alice. It left her with a feeling of frustration and sexual anxiety that took many years and many men to remove.
CASE HISTORY: Cousins-Leah and Carl
When Leah was a little girl she had a companion for her friend, a cousin named Carl. Carl was exactly Leah's age and they played together constantly.
One day while they were playing together, Leah noticed that Carl had a bulge between his legs. "What's that?" she asked him.
Carl stared at her. Surprise was on his face. He thought she should know what it was. "It's my thing," he answered.
"What thing?" Leah asked.
"Don't you have one?" Carl asked her casually.
Leah stooped down and lifted up her dress. No. She didn't have one.
"No. I don't have one," she answered.
Carl and Leah began examining each other and exploring with their fingers each other's private parts. When they were satisfied that they were different they stopped. It never came up again until a few years later.
By that time, both Carl and Leah were old enough to have some answers. But still they felt easier with each other than with anyone else. Leah heard a conversation one day and talked about it to Carl.
"I want to try out something," she said to Carl.
"What?"
She looked at him shyly. "You know."
Carl stared at her a long time. "We mustn't. We're cousins."
"Why not?" Leah demanded. "Why can't cousins do it?"
Carl shrugged. "I dunno. All I know is we can't."
Leah began to cry. All of a sudden she didn't know why, she felt let down. She hadn't realized before how much she was expecting to do it.
"Don't cry," Carl said. "If it means that much to you we'll do it."
Leah looked at him and smiled. Carl stretched out on the ground under some bushes which hid them. "You he on top of me," he told her.
Leah did as she was told.
She looked down at Carl lying at her feet. He was stiff and excited. She felt very excited and lifted up her dress high around her waist exposing her buttocks. Then she squatted down and fitted herself over Carl and opened her legs.
Carl was about to violate her. "Press down, stupid. Hard. We'll make it." Carl was patient. His voice was warm.
Leah pressed down on Carl until her legs were wrapped around his warm tummy. The penis jabbed into her and stayed.
"It won't," she whimpered, her voice wavering.
"Press down harder. I want you to do it so it won't hurt. If I do, it might hurt you."
Leah pressed harder. This time penetration was accomplished. It felt like a rubber band inside her.
"Ohhhhhhhhh," Leah murmured.
Carl looked at her. "It's good. You hurting?"
"No. I like it," she said.
"All right. Then I'm gonna give it all to you." With that Carl began moving and bumping and Leah could feel the pressure inside her. She began to move and gyrate. Her movements were wilder and more frantic than Carl's.
"Take it easy!" he ordered.
"I like it. It's good, but funny. Don't stop."
"I won't stop!"
They threshed and ground in the throes of the sex act for a long time. Neither wanted it to end. When it was over, they started all over again. At last Leah whispered to Carl.
"Carl?"
"Yeah?"
"You goin' give it to me all the time?"
"If you want me too."
"I want you too."
And for the rest of their lives whenever Leah and Carl met, they had to consume themselves in each other. They both married and raised a family, but their desire for each other never abated. Nor was it discovered.
SUMMARY
We have seen that incestuous relationships occur in all levels of life, in all economic classes and by all types of people. We know from studies made that, it is more likely to take place in the lower economic group than in the upper.
When it does occur among the underprivileged groups, it is accompanied by a low mentality, inferior educational training, promiscuity due to lack of sound moral training and overcrowding.
It is always a concomittant, when taking place in this low economic group of inferior living conditions, and a product of fear and brutality. The incest participants are usually prematurely sexual, because of education or information obtained from living in close proximity with each other and a lack of privacy.
In the father-daughter incest relationships, there is greater fear of disclosure and greater caution because of the greater social disapproval attached to the act. The stigma is associated with disgust and horror.
Through the ages, this type of incest has been outlawed and decried. In olden times, it was punishable by death. Most of the reported cases are due to the fact that daughters become pregnant, have the children by their fathers, or report the act in an effort to escape the relationship.
Daughters are usually not so promiscuous as sisters or others involved in the relationship, because daughters are more often dominated by their fathers and browbeaten into the relationship.
The next type of incestuous relationship which fills the participants with shame and hor tot is the sister-brother type. This is usually concealed and is not so apt to be disclosed.
It is not accompanied by brutality and domination as the father-daughter type. It often arises through proximity and close attachments of one sister for a brother. Here too, secrecy and fear of disclosure is a factor in maintaining the relationship. If a brother has access to one sister in his family, he usually has to all and will have intercourse with as many as possible.
This type of relationship might or might not continue indefinitely and on into the marriage of all the parties concerned. Usually, it breaks off when the parties begin leading separate lives.
There are situations where brothers continue to see their sisters, but even so, both parties cover up their activities by raising families of their own.
The uncle-niece and aunt-nephew incest relationship is usually transitory, except in rare cases where the uncle or the aunt so dominates the other participant that he or she is made a virtual slave to the beck and call of the aggressor. If this occurs, it is because there is al ready existing some emotional instability that makes for an undeveloped personality.
Unless the aunt or uncle is the head of the family, these relationships would normally peter out as the nephews and nieces move away from the home and acquire families of their own.
The most continuous relationships are those which are available over a long period of time and which show no maturity of the individuals involved.
This is particularly true of the endogamic and the very promiscuous participants who are incapable of building stable relationships with members of the opposite sex. They must always return to the incestuous member for a continuation of the emotional pattern.
Perhaps the most common of all incest relationships are those involving in-laws and half-and step-relatives.
These can continue indefinitely, for there is little shame or guilt attached to these relationships, especially if the individuals came from disorganized home environments to begin with.
Society allows marriage between cousins and in-laws and even condones it under certain circumstances. The most generally denied incest is the father-daughter relationship.
EFFECT OF INCEST ON THE SOCIETY AND FAMILY SETTING
The basic reason for disapproval of incest in any of its forms is the harmful effect it has on the family structure, to which it is a threat. The father image who is head of the family, and therefore, represents the state is destroyed when he is involved in incest with one of his family.
When he is not, but other members of the family are, his position is jeopardized and his role in the family is juggled, thus upsetting the orienting of the entire family unit and destroying his image.
Since the father represents law and order and society in general, his role must be maintained as inviolable.
The most sordid incest relationship is that of mother-son, for through all ages mother is exalted because of her unique role of childbearing and child-raising. When her role in the family is debased, the basic structure of the family is destroyed, for she is the heart and the foundation of the emotional life of the children. Incest cannot occur in a family where the mother represents a strong moral standard, and exists only when the mother represents promiscuity and emotional withdrawal.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
S. Kirson Weinberg, INCEST BEHAVIOR Citadel Press, New York
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