A Family Affair

You're right--it's amazing how resilient children are. Could this stems from early assimilation of what is normalcy to the child, thereby bracketing their experiences, innoculated from concepts that are foreign to their own lives? The residual is that assimilation into the world at large may always be hampered by these early experiences (i.e. a physically abused child who grows up to assume that abuse is a medium of love.)

And you're right on point two as well, that different children may come out of similar situations with very different mindsets. My best friend was raped as a child. Victimization is a continual psychic problem faced by many who are raped. However, she internalized the experience as a means of power. Granted, this power could best be described in her words as, "Something a woman has that is so powerful, a man would do physical harm to her to get it." It is very apparent that her sexuality was compromised by the horror of her childhood, but the way in which she has been compromised reflects the different ways that children accept their lives.

In this case, I don't see how these children can come out unscarred, and very badly so. However, how they perform isn't set in stone as social deviants due to the deviant nature of their conception and childhood. That is the one uncertainty. I don't think it is uncertain that they will suffer mentally from this for the rest of their lives, however.

I wonder whether my being an American male, born in 1946 and a College graduate, has anything to do with
my facile acceptance of your comments.
I was mostly intrigued by your "evolutionary perspective", assuming that the perspective had its onset during your life's fifth decade and beyond, and wonder whether your new perspective is widely shared by your middle aged academic colleagues.
BTW does the age of the expert in your field really matter?
Had your comments been made to the French, Italian or Spanish media, would the vitriolic responses been less or more sordid and vile ?

I wonder whether my being an American male, born in 1946 and a College graduate, has anything to do with
my facile acceptance of your comments.
I was mostly intrigued by your "evolutionary perspective", assuming that the perspective had its onset during your life's fifth decade and beyond, and wonder whether your new perspective is widely shared by your middle aged academic colleagues.
BTW does the age of the expert in your field really matter?
Had your comments been made to the French, Italian or Spanish media, would the vitriolic responses been less or more sordid and vile ?

What implications does the incestual nature of the situtaion play in regaruds to pyscial, social, emotional, psychological developement?