Incest Survivors’ Life-Narratives

Abstract

This article analyzes the narratives of survivors of father−daughter incest using 20 in-depth interviews with women, each asked to choose a title for her life-story and reflect on its meaning. Three narratives emerged: “Surviving” tells of a struggle for personal achievement in an independent life alongside intensely traumatic experiences and negative feelings, “Fighting Back/Seeking Vengeance” tells of aspiring to strength by acting on their will to fight back and desire for revenge, and “Growing” reflects the wish to fight and win a place in the world through a “rebuilding” process. The conceptualization of incest survivors’ life-narratives is based on the dialectical perspective.

Recovering the Lost Soul: Older Women’s Reflections on Past Intrafamilial Child Sexual Abuse

“…IFCSA is portrayed throughout the literature as a toxic experience that creates cumulative destruction and causes longstanding losses (Buchbinder & Sinay, 2020; Gichaz et al, 2022; Hugill et al, 2017). The participants in the present study seemed to be striving to pave their way out of the ruins of their lives, to reconstruct a new emotional world for themselves that would sustain them in old age.…”

“…Scholarly literature on older women survivors of childhood intrafamilial sexual abuse is limited (Gichaz et al, 2022). However, a somewhat larger pool of knowledge exists regarding older women who experienced sexual abuse as children, including IFCSA (Buchbinder & Sinay, 2020). Within these studies, a growing body of literature addresses the long-term effects of CSA and IFCSA on older women, pinpointing, for the most part, the adverse aftermath of sexual abuse and the ripple effect that carries well into women’s aging years (Bunting et al, 2018; Irish et al, 2010; Kamiya et al, 2016; Sanci, 2019).…”

Challenges of Father-daughter Incest Survivors: Taboo, Coping and Survival

“…CSA has been variously defined by experts. Buchbinder and Sinay (2020); Finkelhor (1980) define child sexual abuse as coercive and involuntary sexual behaviours by adults against children. Ortiz-Ospina and Roser (2019) emphasised that this is a contemptuous activity that occurs when the caregiver or their neighbour forces them to have sexual intercourse with them against their will, exposing children to any sexual statement and pushing them to engage in any sexual activity by giving them gifts or money or pressuring and threatening them.…”