The authors studied several psychosocial, psychosomatic, and
psychodynamic factors in 33 female psychiatric patients who had been
victims of incest. Abuse was almost exclusively severe and
prolonged. Three quarters of the female patients had been abused by
their biological fathers or stepfathers. Sexual abuse experiences in
childhood are connected with feelings of anxiety, helplessness, and
powerlessness. Together with a lack of support on the part of the
mother, these experiences lead to ego weakness, an autoplastic mode of
coping with aggression and to patterns of objectal relationships which
predispose them to object loss. The links between a girl's traumatic
experiences in relationships and her vulnerability to separation in
later life and their importance for the incidence of mental disorders
will be discussed on the basis of Bowlby's attachment theory.