Mental health articles

Sociobiological theory on intrafamilial abuse Westermarck was the first to develop a biological hypothesis for incest avoidance
(Erickson, 1993; Wolf, 1993). In the late 1800s, he proposed that individuals who lived in close proximity during childhood developed an innate aversion to sexual intercourse with those persons. Freud, on the other hand, believed that humans had
inherent incestuous tendencies and that the repression of these impulses led to a universal neurosis which he labeled the Oedipus complex (Erickson, 1993). In more
recent work, both Parker and Parker (1986) and Erickson (1993) have advanced an
approach to incest avoidance that considers the quality of the attachment bond in
intrafamilial relationships. Specifically, Erickson suggests that secure attachment
among family members is “the foundation of adaptive kin-directed behavior,
including incest avoidance” (p. 413). Conversely, individuals with. more insecure familial bonds are hypothesized to be more likely to engage in incestuous behaviors.
Further, incest is hypothesized to be most likely between individuals with no familial bond. Parker and Parker, in applying this theory to father-daughter incest, suggest that
fathers who are more involved in the early care of their daughters are less likely to commit incest.

Tags: abuse