Psychoanalytic and Anthropological Perspectives on Incest in the Modern Family

Over the last twenty years, the scope of the phenomenon of incest has grown dramatically among the families of Quebec. Its public denunciation by the media and by courts of law has made it a burning question for our society. But how can we talk about incest without questioning the soil in which it grows, the family? Our newspapers, as sensitive barometers of the public climate, are the privileged tools we turn to in our quest to locate dominant social rumors. In 1994, just as the International Year of the Family was beginning, I decided to cut out at random newspaper articles dealing with incest or parricide, two family dramas that seem to have a parallel development. Here are some extracts of the kinds of stories I collected:

Man of seventy condemned to five years of prison after pleading guilty to numerous counts of incest with his two daughters from 1965 to 1975, and to having had sexual relations with his five granddaughters, from 1989 to 1991…. The accused feels no remorse. (Le Soleil, January 29, 1994, A-1)

Account of orgies at the trial of the “Seven” of St-Paul-du-Nord. A 20-year-old man told the judge that he had been subjected to sexual attacks by his aunts and uncles, in the living room, the kitchen, and the bedroom. “It began with my mother when she rubbed my penis in the bath,” the witness added. The accused parties “would masturbate and penetrate everyone.” (Le Soleil, January 26, 1994, A-2)

Before putting an end to his life under the most unimaginable circumstances, John Vournous, 15, lay down with a sacred image in his hands next to the cadaver of his mother (who he had just killed) and composed a farewell letter to his father, avowing for the last time his undying love and stating that he had never cried more or been filled with so much regret for his irreversible act of destruction…. The adolescent had fraternized with his classmates as usual that day…. His teachers never had any cause to reproach him…. 24 hours after the event, the police were still