Incest, taboo and recurring behavior

We are in the 21st century and incest is still a phenomenon more or less frequent. In fact, there are some countries where it is legal. Still, there are not many studies available on this matter. Most of the time we learn about these practices from the news and not from expert research.

At the same time it is a taboo For most Western societies, it continues to be practiced. The most recurrent cases are of fathers with daughters. Freud received countless patients in consultation who reported acts of incest with their parents, real and imaginary. However, it also occurs between siblings and other family members, and even between mothers and children.

It is a topic that, in any case, few want to talk about. . In general, it is repudiated. However, that does not mean it ceases to exist. And to the surprise of some, it does not always correspond to cases of abuse in the strict sense of the word. Several testimonies of consensual incest are known, and there are even groups that promote its legalization in countries like Switzerland.

The prohibition of incest

Science has shown that children Those who are the result of incestuous relationships are more likely to develop genetic fragility. Similar genetic patterns prevent hereditary traits from diversifying. This ultimately puts the species as a whole at risk since it biologically weakens individuals to survive. So, from a genetic point of view, incest is inconvenient for the human race.

Sigmund Freud established that incest is a basic impulse in human beings. In other words, we are born with the inclination towards incestuous relationships.

However, in the primitive hordes, where incest was not prohibited, indiscriminate sexual relations between all members gave rise to indiscriminate violence. Men, in particular, resorted to homicide within their own kin group to maintain sexual access to females.

With the evolution of the family, exogamy schemes or sexual relations with individuals outside the parental group were imposed. Thanks to this basic order, social organizations were built in which their members are not systematically murdered. Furthermore, it promoted the evolution of the species, as well as the existence of a more developed culture: societies in which there are limits to what is permitted and what is prohibited.

Incest in today’s world

In today’s world, we can distinguish two types of realities related to incest. On the one hand there are the execrable abuses to which children are subjected in various parts of the planet. Adults who failed to symbolize parental relationships deceive or intimidate the children of their family to satisfy their sexual desires.. It is common that they themselves have been victims of abuse.

On the other hand there are the so-called “consensual incests”. The story of a girl who met her father at the age of 17 and began an affair with him is famous, with the apparent consent of both parties. We also know of brothers to whom the same thing has happened, nephews with uncles and even mothers with children.

The portal “The New Day” tells the case of a 30-year-old woman who began a romantic relationship with her father, as an adult.. A psychologist indicates that: “He had a relationship with his father for about 10 years. He told me that it was a beautiful, transcendental experience, that he never hurt him and that he didn’t tell anyone because people wouldn’t understand. It had been a secret between them. In the evaluation she came out fine, normal”.

If we follow Freud, we would say that culture is failing in its symbolic imposition of permissions and restrictions. In some human beings the little animal of the horde triumphs and the concept of society fails. There is a lot of fabric to be cut in this regard, but something should be clear. The sexual relationship between an adult and a child is a perversion, in any circumstance, since infants lack the necessary maturity to consent consciously.

And if the child is a family member, the consequences on his or her psychological life are even more dire. There are lines in this regard that should never be crossed.

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