ON PEDOPHILIC INCEST - OR INCESTUOUS SEXU AL ABUSE OF CHILDREN

The authors raise the problem of the systematic or variable confusion which concerns incest between adults and incest with children. A wealt h of literature exists concerning pedophilia and incest but the differ ences between OE dipal phantasms, sexual abuse of children and incest between perverse and consenting adults is not always underlined. In le gal terms only crimes concerning children or non-consenting persons ar e taken into account. On the other hand prison sentences are increased when the sex-offender is a parent or person with authority on the vic tim. In fact transgressions of the ''taboo'' of incest are far more fr equent and far more important than was supposed some decades ago. Sinc e the work of S. Ferenczi in the 1930s we have known that the ''confus ion of tongues between adults and the child'' (i.e. confusing of reque st for affection and request for sexual contact) could arise in many f amily and social contexts and produce lasting trauma and various forms of severe neurosis, often hysteria. The father was often classified a s a pervert. If we take a closer look however we find a mixed bag of p athologies, some immature neurotics, some perverts and a rainbow of ot her disorders. The mother-son relationship, Jocaste and OE dipus is ra rely encountered in forensic psychiatry, this is not of course an obst acle to theorising incest in its pathological unity. The authors insis t on what causes trauma in a child before puberty - the fact that the phantasm encounters its ''realisation'' in the world. The act, often c ommitted by person with parental authority, may take place in an atmos phere of secrecy, often we find threats of violence, sometimes incest is presented as a form of ''cheating''. The acts of incest, sometimes very repetitive, correspond to a parental desire to act in secret... w ithout the intention of bringing a social facet to what would then bec ome an ''authentic'' social couple.