Jane appeared older than her fifteen years. Casually dressed in a sweater and jeans, she squirmed, giggled nervously, and blinked her long false eyelashes. Her incestuous relationship with her father had begun when Jane was only six years old. It continued uninterrupted in spite of her father's five successive marriages. At age fourteen, Jane became pregnant. Both she and her father wanted the baby. The father devised an ingenious scheme whereby he would hire a man to marry Jane and then divorce her. That way Jane would remain at home and the family's income would be augmented through county aid. Yet the father eliminated every prospective husband because he feared the man might take advantage of his conjugal rights. Finally the father married Jane himself under an assumed name. Jane inadvertently called him "Daddy" during the ceremony and then frantically corrected herself. The father was jailed, and Jane was placed in a foster home where, several months later, she gave birth to a nine-pound baby boy. The court requested my evaluation as evidence for her father's trial.
Jane recalled her initial coitus at age six. At first she had
refused and wept bitterly. Her father had beaten her with a
belt and Jane had submitted. In the years that followed, her
hesitation provoked a punch with his fist or a whack with a
board. Several years later Jane's young sister, Terry, joined
Jane as the father's servant for sex. Terry had been beaten
and ridiculed not only by her father but by the rest of the
family as well. Each night the three would play a hand of
poker-the loser was to tend father's sexual needs. Mysteriously,
the father never lost. In spite of her anger, Jane be
came fully orgasmic before age ten.
As Jane matured she assumed a position of great power
compared to the younger children. The father was less brutal
with her and gave her special privileges. When a new stepmother
entered the family, Jane insidiously belittled her
much to the father's amusement. No stepmother lasted for
longer than two years. After the departure Jane would once
again resume full command. When she complained about the
younger children, her father beat them viciously. As Jane
became a shapely young woman, her father jealously
guarded her from the attention of her classmates. He arrived
at school exactly three minutes before the last bell and solemnly
escorted her home.
At the time of our interview, Jane's gravest fear was that
her father would be freed. He would beat, perhaps kill her for
revealing the truth. Although she and her foster mother
were at odds, at least she could attend school while her baby
was well tended. Now she openly dated boys and described
several as "real foxy dudes."
Shortly after our interview Jane and her baby were re
moved from that home. The foster mother had intervened as
Jane spanked her infant son for crying. Enraged by the interference,
Jane had dumped a pail of dirty, soaking diapers
over the foster mother's head.
Several months later, Jane was reevaluated while in her
second foster placement. She was already incredibly hostile
toward her foster mother, who was "trying to take over our
baby." She never mentioned any boys her own age but longed
to live again with her father, whom she portrayed as strong,
caring, and smart. She had forgotten the beatings and was
angry at the "crooked" police and social workers. Jane
thought she should have sworn that two men raped her so
that her father would not have been jailed. Shortly thereafter,
Jane angrily ran away from that foster placement, abandoning
her baby.
Somewhere, Jane awaits her father's release from custody.
When incest is forced amid tears and beatings, eroticism
and anger become linked much as they did with Cathy in the
last chapter. Yet Jane is fully orgasmic while Cathy's
response was seriously impaired. Jane clearly describes
intense early erotic stimulation, while Cathy was unable to
recall any self-stimulation or sex play at all.
Incest is not ordinarily accompanied by brutality-seduction
is the common route. Ready rationalizations by a
respected father and enjoyable sensations pave the way. The
young child who doesn't know that incest is immoral is both
flattered and fascinated. It feels good and gets better with
practice. Incest becomes a private game, a "secret" from the
mother.