The incest taboo was alway so completely not spoken about in contemporary culture, the very thought of it was so unbelievable to most sane people, that it was almost impossible to believe when survivors were brave enough to speak about it. But there were seismic changes during the second wave of feminism and the growth of the feminist self-help model.
Along with the changes there were pitfalls too. "The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse" was released in 1988 and it was a publishing landmark. However, it was also fraught with information that, in hindsight, created a disturbing dynamic in the discourse of sexual abuse survival. Most alarmingly, the text informed readers, "If you think you might have been sexually abused, you probably were."
Now, who was it that arrived at that conclusion? Here's the Wikipedia description of the authors of the book:
"The Courage to Heal" is written by Ellen Bass, a poet and creative writing teacher and her student Laura Davis, an author, writing teacher and incest survivor. The danger of making grand statements based on anecdotal evidence was probably not at the forefront of thought for this poet/teacher and her student. And yet, "you probably were" helped usher in a cottage industry of recovery and recovered memories. It took decades for real scientific research to disprove what was taken at face value by many people involved in the recovery industry: that recovered memories are bunk.
But the template was established, and it is still very tricky ground to talk about. Someone above dismissed the issue as taking place in "one moment in time" but the Courage to Heal had a sequel workbook published and a 20th anniversary edition published. So, the one moment in time has proven to be quite lengthy.
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Updated On: 2/3/14 at 03:52 PM
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