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IN THE COURSE OF WORKING WITH patients who have been involved in heterosexual as well as homosexual incestuous or abusive relationships during childhood I have observed that these experiences inevitably have profound impact on the nature of the individual's patterns of relation to desire, not just of a sexual nature, but in a much more pervasive sense. This in turn influences the quality of the person's sexual relations, and the nature of his or her patterns of interpersonal relations in general.
What I will present are some of my own observations and hypotheses about the relationship between abuse and desire and some of the technical issues I believe this raises. My focus will be only on situations in which the victim was an active participant, whether overtly or covertly. I will not address situations in which there was forceful violation and rape.
Without minimizing the traumatic nature of the actual violation of the child, which is intrinsic to the incestuous relationship, I will try to demonstrate that often the most devastating aspect for the