Fathers who Mistake their Daughters for their Mothers

THIS PAPER IS BASED ON the psychoanalysis and intensive psychotherapy of four women, all victims of paternal incest. Although they came from somewhat different kinds of backgrounds, their families had much in common psychodynamically; a pattern seen in the psychopathology of one family was seen in the other families—it was replicated. Among the common denominators of their unconscious dynamics were relatedness, expectation, impact and outcome. This paper addresses and delineates family systems pertinent to incest. It does so by psychoanalytic methods, and not the methods of family therapy. It is the result of many reconstructions, analyses of transference and working through, as well as living with and analyzing many disruptive countertransferential experiences.

All of the patients came from upper-middle class homes, where both parents were at least college educated. In all of the cases cited, the incestuous relationship occurred over a brief time, lasting not longer than six months, at least several years after the daughters had reached puberty, in their mid to late teens, when the girls were biologically clearly women. While the sexual aspect of the incest constituted a trauma, a catastrophe in its own right, it