Through an intensive clinical study of forty incest victims and numerous interviews with professionals in mental health, child protection, and law enforcement, Judith Herman develops a composite picture of the incestuous family. In a new afterword, Herman offers a lucid and thorough overview of the knowledge that has developed about incest and other forms of sexual abuse since this book was first published. Reviewing the extensive research literature that demonstrates the validity of incest survivors' sometimes repressed and recovered memories, she convincingly challenges the rhetoric and methods of the backlash movement against incest survivors, and the concerted attempt to deny the events they find the courage to describe. from the publisher's website Table of Contents Preface Author's Note, 2000: In Memory of Lisa Hirschman Introduction: Cinderella or Saint Dympna I The Incest Secret 1. A Common Occurrence 2. The Question of Harm 3. The Question of Blame 4. The Rule of the Father II Daughter's Lives 5. Incestuous Fathers and Their Families 6. The Daughter's Inheritance 7. Seductive Fathers and Their Families III Breaking Secrecy 8. The Crisis of Disclosure 9. Restoring Families 10. Criminal Justice 11. Remedies for Victims 12. Preventing Sexual Abuse Afterword, 2000: Understanding Incest Twenty Years Later Appendix: The Incest Statutes, by Leigh Beinen Notes Index | 
