Father-Daughter Incest (with a new Afterword)

I read The Body Keeps The Score a few years ago, and then forgot about it. Then randomly I remembered that in part of the book he talks about psychologists of the 1970's not thinking that incest had any affect on the children that experienced it. That took me down a rabbit hole, and I found this book which has a chapter that goes into more depth about the ways incest has been ignored by the psychological community for decades/centuries (sometimes considered "normal" or fantasy) and the deleterious effects that's had on womankind.Would recommend for counselors and survivors alike. Some people consider it common knowledge, but if it were so common would we still have so much child abuse? Incest survives because of secrecy and denial, and if you came from a family like mine, this book will be revealing.

I highly recommend for those affected by incest. It may have been written awhile ago but the information is still extremely relevant and has been better than therapy in many ways for me. This book has answered a lot of my questions. I don’t feel so alone.

This book looks deep into the hidden family dynamics in the homes where abuse is allowed. It helps the victims understand so much more and debunks some of the myths about abuse. Reading it, I wondered if the author was a "fly on the wall" in my home growing up. It truly helped in my healing process. As a survivor of long time incest I highly recommend this book and have recommended it to several other survivors!

I didn’t originally plan on reading this book. I was actually wanting to read Herman’s Trauma and Recovery, which I’ve heard spoken of as one of the go to books about trauma. I’m not sure if this is a geographical problem or not but when I went to buy a Kindle copy of that book I discovered it didn’t exist. I then decided to see what else Herman had written and came across this book, which was available on Kindle. Thinking there’d probably be significant overlap between the two I decided to dive right in. Without having read Trauma and Recovery yet I can’t say for sure but I’m guessing they’re quite different books.Although I’ve read quite a few fiction and non-fiction books about sexual assault, I haven’t read a great deal specifically about incest. I often feel as though the gears move almost imperceptibly slowly where sexual assault is concerned, from the attitudes that surround it to practical help for survivors and reforms to the legal system.I usually read recently published books that explore sexual assault so to encounter things I take for granted as revolutionary ideas was a whole new experience. At once a history lesson and confirmation of how important early studies into taboo subjects are in shining light into the darkness, this might not have been the book I was expecting to read but I still took a lot away from it.Much of the information I came across in this book, which was groundbreaking when it was first published in 1981, read to me as either common sense or confirmation of information I’ve already come across. I found that encouraging because it proved we are actually making progress, even though it doesn’t always feel that way.This book came about as a result of two women, Lisa Hirschman and the author, speaking in 1975 about the patients they’d both encountered who had disclosed a history that included incest. Both women contributed to the research but it was Judith Lewis Herman who eventually wrote this book.“Since nothing satisfactory seemed to have been written about father-daughter incest, we were finally driven to write about it ourselves.”This book is divided into three parts:1. Using “survey data, clinical material, anthropological literature, popular literature, and pornography”, the author takes a look at the history of how society has dealt with incest. Spoiler: not well at all. From Freud lying about his own findings to pretty much anyone who could have have a positive influence on the lives of survivors instead discrediting, disbelieving and downright pathologising them, it’s a wonder survivors have had the courage to speak at all.“I know I don’t want to hear it. I have no idea what to do with these cases. And I don’t think I’m unusual.” (Quote from a therapist)2. The author and Hirschman conducted their own clinical study, interviewing forty survivors of incest and twenty women whose “fathers had been seductive but not overtly incestuous”. Yes, I cringed every time I read the word ‘seductive’ in this context.“Consumed with inner rage, they nevertheless rarely caused trouble to anyone but themselves. In their own flesh, they bore repeated punishment for the crimes committed against them in childhood.”3. Dealing with the “social responses to discovered incest”, this section explores crisis intervention, family treatment and prosecution. This section also talks about prevention.“As long as fathers rule but do not nurture, as long as mothers nurture but do not rule, the conditions favoring the development of father-daughter incest will prevail.”The studies referred to throughout the book are mostly from the 1970’s and those discussed in the afterward, which was written in 2000, were predominantly published in the 1990’s. I’d be interested, now that another twenty years have passed, to find out what else has been learned, confirmed or disproven.Although I’m cautiously optimistic that we’re still moving in the direction of more openness and less stigma for survivors of incest, I’m also very much aware that this topic remains taboo. It was telling for me when I compared the Goodreads statistics of this book and Herman’s Trauma and Recovery.At the time of writing this review, Trauma and Recovery has almost 11,000 ratings and over 450 reviews. This book, in contrast, has just over 100 ratings and about a dozen reviews. I wonder if so few people have read this book, which was first released about a decade prior to Trauma and Recovery, or if many readers have chosen not to add this book to their Goodreads shelves, not wanting to admit they read a book about this topic…“The abuses have gone on for too long. Too many survivors have disclosed their secrets. It is too late now to go back to silence.”Content warnings are included on my blog.

I read the expanded 2000 edition on my kindle. So much new evidence. Judith Herman, MD, is a professor of clinical psychiatry at Harvard."Father-Daughter Incest" was originally published in 1981, breaking open a taboo subject that many people are still uncomfortable thinking about. Her core research back then was a detailed study of the lives of 40 incest victims in the Boston area who were interviewed in a clinical environment. Most astonishing was her finding that the authoritarian fathers were considered to be pillars of their community. Herman has stayed with her subject for a lifetime. Only fitting, I guess, since her evidence, particularly in the expanded edition, shows that incest victims seldom get over *their* traumas.

I found this book very helpful in understanding Father-Daughter incest. Although there are other books that broach the subject that are quite good, this book goes into great detail to examine what incest is, why it is harmful, and what one can do to help themselves after having experienced incest. Some of the information is a little out of date, as the main body of the work was written in the late 70's to 80's, and the notes from the 20 year Anniversary edition seem to be written in the 90's, but even so, I found most of the information to be quite relevant and elucidating.

This reminded me of college textbooks. Very fact driven. Lots of terms and words that were difficult to understand. This too, I have not finished. Subject matter is hard to engage in fully

This work presents the most comprehensive picture of father-daughter incest I have found -- and many subsequent psychological texts rely on it heavily. I actually had a difficult time making it through Herman's "Trauma and Recovery," but this is a real page-turner. Extremely well-written, insightful, and chock full of "a-ha" moments for anyone on the spectrum (overt--covert) incest. An absolute MUST for survivors. Written from a feminist perspective that I don't usually seek out, but found very thought-provoking, and persuasive.

This book is excellent and hugely validating. It’s relatively easy to read for such a heavy subject matter. I’m thoroughly sick of these kinds of fathers. They throw away their duty to protect and compromise their soul to abuse. For me the bottom line is: they shouldn’t have done it but they did. Therefore they are guilty, and all the daughters are innocent.

I've purchased this book twice from Amazon but I keep receiving a book with a completely different cover than what is depicted here. If you're looking for the book with the cover shown, I'd recommend buying it elsewhere.

Für mich stellte das Buch trotz seines Alters eine gute Ausgangsbasis für die Beschäftigung mit diesem schwierigen Thema. Es stellt in auch für den Laien gut lesbarer Form Informationen aus psychologischer, soziologischer und historischer Sicht zusammen. Der Grundtenor ist (moderat) feministisch. Ein Einstieg, der einem definitiv eine spätere Vertiefung des Themas mit jüngerer bzw. speziellerer Literatur erleichtert und anregt, weil in der Knappheit natürlich vieles offen bleiben muss. Vermutlich gibt es nichts bresseres, solange ein Buches wie dieses, dieses Buch nicht in umfassend aktualisierter Form vorliegt.

Das Buch ist sehr umfangreich, viele Studien, ganz eindeutig von einer Fachfrau geschrieben, die Ahnung hat.Ein nicht unerheblicher Negativpunkt bleibt allerdings: der Vater als der Täter wird entsprechend dargestellt, die Mutter als Mitverantwortliche wird zu wenig entsprechend dargestellt. Oft hatte ich das Gefühl, die Mutter wird als Opfer dargestellt und die Tochter – das eigentliche Opfer – zu wenig erwähnt.

The book is comprehensive and well organized. The author thinks and writes clearly and with conviction. I would recommend this account to anyone wishing to understand the nature of incest imposed by fathers upon daughters. Victims will gain a clearer insight into what was done to them, and should be helped by understanding the true nature of their experience, as opposed to the notions of society and the lies of the perpetrator.