Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T21:23:16.567Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Incest, Incestuous Fantasy & Indecency

A Clinical Catchment Area Study of Normal-Weight Bulimic Women

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

J. Hubert Lacey
J. Hubert Lacey*
Affiliation:
Adult Psychiatry Section, Academic Department of Psychiatry, St George's Hospital Medical School, Jenner Wing, Cranmer Terrace, London SW17 0RE
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This systematic study of 112 consecutive referrals of normal-weight bulimic women from a circumscribed urban catchment area found that eight patients (7%) reported sexual abuse involving physical contact. Four (3.6%) of these described incest, but only in two cases (1.8%) did the incest occur in childhood. Just over 5% of the sample reported unlawful sexual intercourse in childhood or gross indecency. Eighteen additional patients reported incestuous fantasies and two of these were partly acted out. The study indicates that incest and sexual abuse reported by bulimics is usually in those multi-impulsive patients who also abuse alcohol or drugs as well as food. The reported prevalences of incest and indecency in normal-weight bulimic women are only slightly higher than figures derived from general population surveys.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 157 , Issue 3 , September 1990 , pp. 399 - 403
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1990 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abraham, S. F., Beumont, P. J. V. (1982) Varieties of psycho-sexual experience in patients with anorexia nervosa. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 1, 10–19.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (1987) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edn, revised) (DSM–III–R). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
Baker, A. W. & Duncan, S. P. (1985) Child sexual abuse: a study of prevalence in Great Britain. Child Abuse Neglect, 9, 457–467.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bluglass, R. (1979) Incest. British Journal of Hospital Medicine, 22, 152–157.Google Scholar
Calan, R. & Slade, P. (1987) Eating problems and sexual experience: some relationships. British Review of Bulimia A Anorexia Nervosa, 2, 37–43.Google Scholar
Creighton, J. (1987) Child abuse in 1986. Findings from the NSPCC's Register Research (research briefing no. 8). London: National Society of Protection of Cruelty to Children.Google Scholar
Crisp, A. H. (1967) Anorexia nervosa. Hospital Medicine, 1, 713–718.Google Scholar
Crisp, A. H. (1984) The psychopathology of anorexia nervosa: getting the ‘heat’ out of the system. In Eating and its Disorders (eds A. J. Stunkard & E. Stellar). New York: Raven Press.Google Scholar
Finkelhor, D. (1979) Sexually Victimised Children. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Lacey, J. H. (1987) ‘A Demographic and Clinical Study of Normal- Weight Bulimic Women in a London District Catchment Area’. MD thesis, St Andrews/Dundee.Google Scholar
Lacey, J. H. & Evans, C. D. H. (1986) The impulsivist: a multi-impulsive personality disorder. British Journal of Addiction, 81, 715–723.Google Scholar
Markowe, H. L. J. (1988) The frequency of childhood sexual abuse in the UK. Health Trends, 20, 2–6.Google Scholar
Mrazek, P. J. & Kempe, H. (1981) Sexually Abused Children and their Families. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Mrazek, P. J., Lynch, M. & Bentovim, A. (1983) Sexual abuse of children in the UK. Child Abuse & Neglect, 7, 147–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mullen, P. E., Romans-Clarkson, S., Walton, K., et al (1988) Effect of sexual and physical abuse on women's mental health. Lancet, 41, 841–845.Google Scholar
Nash, C. L., West, D. J. (1985) Sexual molestation of young girls. In Sexual Victimisation (ed. D. J. West), pp. 1–92. Aldershot: Gower.Google Scholar
Oppenheimer, R., Howells, K., Palmer, R. L., et al (1985) Adverse sexual experiences in children and clinical eating disorders. Journal of Psychiatry Research, 19, 357–361.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schecter, M. D. & Roberge, L. (1976) Sexual exploitation. In Child Abuse & Neglect: The Family and the Community (eds R. E. Heifer & C. H. Kempe), pp. 127–142. Cambridge, Mass: Ballinger.Google Scholar
Sloan, G. & Leichner, P. (1986) Is there any relationship between sexual abuse or incest and eating disorders? Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 31, 656–660.Google Scholar
Wyatt, G. E. (1985) The sexual abuse of Afro-American & White American women in childhood. Child Abuse & Neglect, 9, 507–519.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.