To Tell the Truth, (Re)Tell One’s Tale: On Pedophilia, Taboo Desire, and Seduction Trauma-- Introduction to The Tale and Leaving Neverland: A Panel on Two Films on Childhood Sexual Abuse

Abstract

Our introduction is to a panel that considers two films, The Tale and Leaving Neverland. Both films feature adult protagonists reclaiming memories of their disavowed childhood sexual abuse, and both were released amid #MeToo and a proliferation of other films, TV shows, and memoirs depicting seduction trauma in the context of a family romance plotline. Together, they suggest features of a universally taboo story (of childhood sexual abuse), compounded by psychoanalysis's primal taboo: incestuous desire. It is argued that though psychoanalysis recognizes the reality of sexual abuse, it nonetheless seems to discount, as did Freud, its ubiquity, and, too, may leave underexplored the incidence of pedophiliac fantasy. Further, and ironically in light of psychoanalysis's history, it underestimates the survivor's investment in her romantic fantasy, and its identification itself with her aggressor's "grooming," as a force that denies the real of her trauma. Both films depict the ongoing therapeutic action of après-coup, in the quest to (re) tell truth between memory-desire, omnipotence-agency, truth-fiction, and reparation-(imaginative) apology.Grappling with how to explain his turn to the contradictory form of the autobiographical novel to make sense of his life, which would mean to lay bare his trauma, the author Alexander Chee (2018, p. 212) writes, "Plot was also a way of facing what I couldn't or wouldn't remember . . . I would need a way to descend [into the past] and return safely. Turning myself into a character, inventing a plot, turning that past into fiction, I hoped, could solve for all of this." Chee's comments find resonance with what would seem the ironic choice made by Jennifer Fox, a documentarian, who turned to feature film to tell a fictionalized account of real events. That film, The Tale, is based upon an unnamed tale she'd written at age 13, described as a love story, but that harbors within it a story of sexual abuse, and links, through its title, to timeless fairy tales. As critic Rachel Syme (2018) observes, "The fictional translation allows Fox to control her very delicate story, but also to explore the gaps within; she never attempts to fill the lacunae where things make sense with evidence or with justification."What's more, Fox doesn't only turn to fiction to tell her story, she-through a voiceover of the protagonist, who shares the director's name, breaking the fourth wall-tells the viewer that the story they are about to see "is true (pause) as far as I know." By means of this directorial sleight of hand, or of reality, a parallel process between Fox's experience and that of the viewer is set in motion. The viewer, as was Fox, is drawn into questioning what is real and what they imagine, into deciphering ambiguities and gaps between historical and psychic reality, and into memory's messy malleability and the way in which it subverts narrative coherence and agential sovereignty.

On the conceptual grounds of subjective rectification: Responsibility, choice, and freedom in Lacanian psychoanalysis

“…Common sense would suggest that, for instance, in the case of abuse, survivors did not have a choice in what happened to them, and that the perpetrator is to be held responsible. Holding the patient responsible for their suffering risks misrecognizing their helplessness and suffering on a personal level, but also structural problems on a societal level (e.g., the high, nearly epidemic, prevalence of childhood sexual abuse; see also Gentile & Feiner, 2021). Nonetheless, we believe that holding the perpetrator responsible on a juridical and societal level does not exclude paying attention to how a survivor of a traumatic event positions themself with respect to the event in the consulting room.…”

“…This safety is a necessary prerequisite to explore how patients have positioned themselves in relation to the traumatic events and how this fits within their subjective history, while recognizing the complexity of their situation. With this in mind, we will discuss Gentile and Feiner’s (2021) examination of the films Tale and Leaving Neverland , which recount disavowed memories of childhood sexual abuse, as well as the published case study of Nina (Chiriaco, 2015), who also experienced childhood sexual abuse and later recounted these events in analysis. By analyzing these cases, we aim to shift the focus from the victim to the subject and clarify how assuming responsibility can be understood in cases of trauma.…”

“…In a recent article concerning pedophilia and taboo desire, Gentile and Feiner (2021) refer to two films (i.e., Tale and Leaving Neverland ) in which the protagonists recount the sexual abuse they suffered as a child. Strikingly, in both examples, the children initially experienced the transgressive behavior they endured as a fierce love story.…”

“…Likewise the Dutch writer Marieke Lucas Rijneveld explains how he dislikes the word “abuse” and prefers to describe his book, My Heavenly Favorite: A Novel , as a story of forbidden love (Blom, 2020). The film Tale is based on a love story which Jennifer Fox had written when she was 13, but that in retrospect is to be understood as a testimonial of sexual abuse (Gentile & Feiner, 2021). She describes how this “love story” made her feel special and empowered, which incited her to safeguard it.…”

“…In the documentary, Wade, for instance, tries to make sense of why he kept their sexual relationship secret and why he testified in Jackson’s favor in a legal trial prompted by allegations by another child. He describes having been “excited by the idea of being able to defend him and being able to save him” (Gentile & Feiner, 2021, p. 74). Moreover, James and Wade testify of their jealousy towards the other kids Jackson replaced them with.…”