The author is a cultural anthropologist and Zürich-trained analyst. She says her theoretical base and her training as analyst of archetypal material rather than therapist left her floundering in her practice with analysands who were sexually abused as children. She felt uncertain how to ‘convey the healing power of the archetype’, since ‘the archetype of incest … must be lived by its abstinence in order for it to be humanised’. To achieve this, a conscious tension is needed between the two sides—the desire to commit incest and its prohibition. ‘Repression of one or the other results in serious wounding of the psyche’. The actual breach of the incest taboo is the problem.

She discards early fantasy theories in view of today's acknowledged high incidence, and, in arguing that it is ‘very relevant whether the trauma really occurred’, says she is entering a controversial debate. Incest victims are often immobilised until middle life