Content area
Abstract
The majority of the research regarding the mother-daughter relationship among incest survivors indicates that survivors feel anger and hostility toward their mothers. A recent qualitative study (Sen & Daniluk, 1995) explores incest survivors' relationships with their mothers and identifies five relational themes found in their sample of five women survivors of paternal incest. These themes include: (a) inability to trust, (b) reversal in nurturing responsibilities, (c) belief in implicit consent, (d) difficulties differentiating self from mother, and (e) impaired identification with mother. The author expands upon this research by utilizing a definition of incest that allows for the inclusion of perpetrators outside of blood-line relatives. Participants included six women who were primarily selected from a university counseling center. The mean age for the participants is 38 years old. Data was collected by means of open-ended in-depth interviews with each subject. A phenomenological analysis and the inclusion of self-in-relation theory with the women's narratives resulted in the identification of three additional themes: (a) loss of mother, (b) desire to care for mother, and (c) empathy for mother. A discussion of clinical implications when working with female incest survivors follows.
