Analysis of Two Adult Female Patients Who Had Been Victims of Incest in Childhood

Analysis of Two Adult Female Patients Who Had Been Victims of Incest in Childhood

It is clear that we can no longer imagine that incest in childhood is either rare, or always to be analyzed as if it were a fantasy. Indeed, Freud was aware of this even as he withdrew his original postulate that actual seduction was the keystone on the arch of the understanding of hysterical symptoms.

A brief discussion of the history of psychoanalysis, vis-à-vis the seduction theory is followed by a description of the characteristic symptoms and analytic behavior of adult analysands who had been sexually molested as children. The analysis of two such adult women, victims of incest in childhood, are presented with special regard to the specific characteristics of the de-repression of the traumatic episodes and the common countertransferences evoked by this category of patients. I present a verbatim session from the analysis of the second patient.

Psychiatry and Mental health