Father-Daughter Incest

Judith Lewis Herman, M.D., is Psychiatric Director of the Women’s Mental Health Collective, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

• Preface Author's Note, 2000: In Memory of Lisa Hirschman Introduction: Cinderella or Saint Dympna PART 1: The Incest Secret 1. A Common Occurrence 2. The Question of Harm 3. The Question of Blame 4. The Rule of the Father PART 2: Daughter's Lives 5. Incestuous Fathers and Their Families 6. The Daughter's Inheritance 7. Seductive Fathers and Their Families PART 3: Breaking Secrecy 8. The Crisis of Disclosure 9. Restoring Families 10. Criminal Justice 11. Remedies for Victims 12. Preventing Sexual Abuse Afterword, 2000: Understanding Incest Twenty Years Later Appendix: The Incest Statutes, by Leigh Beinen Notes Index

There is much to commend in the book. It is gracefully written and reviews a wide literature ranging from the scientific to the pornographic and from fairy tales to the Bible...The author presents practical and helpful suggestions on how best to approach a family facing the problem of incest, the methods of strengthening the mother's position and improving the mother-daughter relationship, necessary steps to protect the victim from further physical and psychological harm, and ways of prosecuting or treating the father. There is also useful advice on psychotherapy of grownup incest victims and a discussion of the countertransference feelings in male and female therapists that are most likely to interfere with treatment or to make it detrimental.