ABSTRACT
Sigmund Freud’s seduction theory explored and exposed the highly sensitive realities of infantile and childhood sexuality. Freud’s social and professional audience were perhaps stretched enough by the revelation, without having to contend with the exposure of prevalent child sexual abuse in what was regarded as a highly civilised society. As Freud observes, it has become our habit to say that civilisation has been built up and the cost of sexual trends which, being inhibited by society, are partly, it is true, repressed but have partly been made usable for other aims”. While the revelation of child sexuality was outrageous, implying the existence of a reciprocal sexual tendency in mothers, toward their children would have constituted the grounds for social and professional suicide. Contemporary responses to child sex abuse are arguably draconian and potentially highly destructive, particularly for the children involved. The incest taboo exists precisely to prohibit the primal/constitutional impulse to have sexual relations with one’s children.
