NCJ Number
105040
Date Published
1986
Length
27 pages
Annotation
This paper examines the distinction between rape and seduction, so important in legal practice, from a psychoanalytic perspective.
Abstract
Sigmund Freud proposed a theory of the etiology of neuroses which relied on the seduction theory, which held that neuroses were caused by the aftereffects of the sexual abuse and seduction of children. Feminist writers criticize this theory as providing an opening to excuse rapists and blame rape victims. Psychoanalytic discourse and legal discourse, however, are antipathetic. Psychoanalysis is not concerned with the rendering of moral or legal judgments but with improvement in the patient's mental state. Legal procedures, on the other hand, focus on culpability and sanctions based on legal guilt. Seduction is the concern of psychoanalysis because it involves complex emotional interactions between persons that involve manipulation and ambiguities that become fertile ground for shame, guilt, and psychic pain. These emotions prompt the arousal of psychic defenses that issue in neuroses. Rape is a criminal offense that focuses on the defendant's culpability in a charge of sexual assault that occurred in a relatively short time period. Consent or nonconsent of the victim becomes a principal focus of the trial. The psychoanalyst is less concerned with matters of culpability than with how the victim interprets and reacts to the incident. The victim may question whether she fought hard enough or may have contributed in some way to the rape. Under such circumstances the rape may turn into a seduction in the victim's mind. This produces emotional complications that are the proper concern of the psychoanalyst.