Mothers in “Incest Families”: A Critique of Blame and Its Destructive Sequels

Mothers in “Incest Families”: A Critique of Blame and Its Destructive Sequels

Prevailing attitudes toward mothers in families in which father-daughter incest is disclosed cause a destructive misdirecting of blame that ultimately supports victimization of women. Blame-oriented explanations of mothers' roles are critically reviewed and contrasted with feminist reassessments in a sociopolitical context. Identified as additional victims in the complex matrix of family and community, mothers are revictimized by a clinical establishment that upholds the nonconscious patriarchal ideology underlying violence against women. Clinicians need to validate and support mothers in their “disenfranchised grief” so they can better help their daughters to heal, and to design and lobby for programs that will promote social changes necessary for a more egalitarian society.

Sociology and Political Science, Law, Gender Studies