118-401: Why Freud Was Wrong: Sin, Science and Psychoanalysis (1995; second edition 1996; third edition 2005) is a book by Richard Webster , in which the author provides a critique of Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis , and attempts to develop his own theory of human nature. Webster argues that Freud became a kind of Messiah and that psychoanalysis is a pseudoscience and a disguised continuation of
236-471: A royal family were married as a means of perpetuating the royal lineage. Some societies have different views about what constitutes illegal or immoral incest. For example, in Samoa , a man was permitted to marry his older sister, but not his younger sister. However, sexual relations with a first-degree relative (meaning a parent, sibling, or child) are almost universally forbidden. The English word incest
354-485: A "sometimes less than scrupulous attitude toward truth" as an understatement. He found his discussion of the recovered memory movement one of the most interesting sections of the book. However, he criticized him for not providing more discussion of the cultural influence of Freudian theories, for failing to address "Freud's misogynistic teachings" and their effects on the women's movement, and for providing insufficient information about Freud's use of cocaine. Lodge considered
472-626: A Modern Witch Hunt (2005), Webster discussed a care home for adolescent boys that became the focus of press revelations and a police investigation for child abuse that spread across a number of residential homes in North Wales, and argued that abuse scandals could be phenomena created by public hysteria. The book was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize . Webster, the son of a subpostmaster, was born in 1950, in Newington, Kent , and raised in
590-553: A PhD, which he did not complete. When his father became ill, Webster ran the family post office, which had been shifted to Cambridge. Having married in 1977, Webster started The Orwell Bookshop in Southwold with his wife Bod in 1985. The shop was successful, but was sold because Webster's other interests demanded too much of his time. Webster moved to Oxford after the break-up of his marriage. In his A Brief History of Blasphemy (1990), Webster described himself as "an atheist who
708-553: A background in medicine, argued that Breuer's patient Anna O. suffered from "a severe neurological disorder" and that "its array of florid symptoms underwent spontaneous remission one after another." He credited Webster with exposing many "empirical and logical" absurdities in Freud's views, and making a generally strong case against Freud. However, he was less convinced by Webster's attempt to minimize Freud's originality, finding it "wearisome". He argued that Webster lacked familiarity with
826-611: A brother and sister if they had different mothers: for example, some accounts say that Elpinice was for a time married to her half-brother Cimon . Incest is mentioned and condemned in Virgil 's Aeneid Book VI: hic thalamum invasit natae vetitosque hymenaeos – "This one invaded a daughter's room and a forbidden sex act". Roman civil law prohibited marriages within four degrees of consanguinity but had no degrees of affinity with regard to marriage. Roman civil laws prohibited any marriage between parents and children, either in
944-675: A child is usually considered a form of child sexual abuse, also known as child incestuous abuse , and for many years has been the most reported form of incest. Father–daughter and stepfather–stepdaughter sex are the most commonly reported forms of adult–child incest, with most of the remaining involving a mother or stepmother. Many studies found that stepfathers tend to be far more likely than biological fathers to engage in this form of incest. One study of adult women in San Francisco estimated that 17% of women were abused by stepfathers and 2% were abused by biological fathers. Father–son incest
1062-512: A clinical study by Kelly et al. (2002), among the 67 sexually abused men, in 17 cases the perpetrators were their mothers. More recently, studies have suggested that sibling incest , particularly older brothers having sexual relations with younger siblings, is the most common form of incest, with some studies finding sibling incest occurring more frequently than other forms of incest. Some studies suggest that adolescent perpetrators of sibling abuse choose younger victims, abuse victims over
1180-443: A condemnation of the whole." The philosopher Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen and the psychologist Sonu Shamdasani wrote that Why Freud Was Wrong was made possible by new scholarship on Freud, and formed part of the "Freud Wars", an ongoing controversy around psychoanalysis. Richard Webster (British author) Richard Webster (17 December 1950 – 24 June 2011 ) was a British author. His five published books deal with subjects such as
1298-670: A disconcerting habit of citing anti-Freudian authorities to bolster an argument and then rounding on them to claim that the rest of their anti-Freudian argument is false." Woffinden suggested that Why Freud Was Wrong may be the book for which Webster is best remembered. Why Freud Was Wrong received a positive review in the Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences , a mixed review from Peter Swales in Nature , and
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#17327810614621416-973: A diversion from his theory of cultural history but an attempt to apply it in practice. Webster made the acquaintance of literary critic Frederick Crews while the latter was working on the essays that appeared in The Memory Wars (1995); Crews thanked Webster for his help, and commented that his contact with him had been enriching. Webster's Why Freud Was Wrong (1995) received acclaim, as well as some criticism. With Bob Woffinden, Webster helped find lawyers for Dawn Reed and Christopher Lillie, former Newcastle nurses who were falsely accused of sexually abusing children in their care. Reed and Lillie, who were first accused of child abuse in 1993 and only found not guilty in 2002, say that they would probably be dead, through suicide or murder, without this assistance. Reed told The Observer that, "After all that had happened, to find people who wanted to help us just out of
1534-499: A felony of the third degree. Other states also commonly prohibit marriages between such kin. The legality of sex with a half-aunt or half-uncle varies state by state. In the United Kingdom, incest includes only sexual intercourse with a parent, grandparent, child, or sibling, but the more recently introduced offense of "sex with an adult relative" extends as far as half-siblings, uncles, aunts, nephews, and nieces. However,
1652-505: A generous tribute to the deceased scientist David Kelly because he was worried that Kelly's widow might accuse him of being responsible for her husband's death, thereby endangering his political career. Incest Incest ( / ˈ ɪ n s ɛ s t / IN -sest ) is sex between close relatives , for example a brother or sister or cousins. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by lineage . It
1770-434: A handful such cases were documented. Catanzarite attributes this to selection bias and the lack of physical evidence in such cases. According to Etherington (1997), one of the reasons of the under-reporting of such cases is that men often found difficulty in defining their mother's behavior as abuse. In a clinical study by Olson (1990), 30 men had been victims of incest; the mother was a perpetrator in 61.5 % of cases. In
1888-580: A kind of Messiah and that psychoanalysis is a disguised continuation of the Judaeo-Christian tradition. The work received acclaim. It was called "brilliant" by Anthony Storr and Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy . It was identified as "an indispensable modern critique of psychoanalysis" by Storr and "the most comprehensive negative critique" of Freud by professor of German language and literature Ritchie Robertson (who notes that it incorporates earlier critiques). Webster has been credited with exposing
2006-464: A lengthier period, use violence more frequently and severely than adult perpetrators, and that sibling abuse has a higher rate of penetrative acts than father or stepfather incest, with father and older brother incest resulting in greater reported distress than stepfather incest. South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Pakistan, and Nigeria are some of the countries with the most incest through consanguineous marriage. Sex between an adult family member and
2124-759: A negative review from Hannah S. Decker in Isis . The book was also reviewed by John S. Callender in BMJ , the psychoanalyst John Lawrence in the Journal of Social Work Practice , and the evolutionary biologist George C. Williams in The Quarterly Review of Biology . The Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences described the book as a "a valuable contribution" to understanding Freud and credited Webster with "a thorough study of Freud’s life and works as well as of secondary sources". Swales wrote that while
2242-967: A negative review from the historian Frank McLynn in New Statesman & Society . The book was also reviewed by Brenda Grazis in Booklist , the biographer Paul Ferris in The Spectator , the psychologist Stuart Sutherland in The Times Higher Education Supplement , R. H. Balsam in Choice , the psychiatrist Bob Johnson in New Scientist , Kate Chisholm in TES , Sarah Boxer in The New York Times Book Review , and discussed by
2360-623: A new report suggests. Delhi organisation RAHI said 76% of respondents to its survey had been abused when they were children – 40% of those by a family member." According to the National Center for Victims of Crime a large proportion of rape committed in the United States is perpetrated by a family member: Research indicates that 46% of children who are raped are victims of family members (Langan and Harlow, 1994). The majority of American rape victims (61%) are raped before
2478-572: A partly positive view of Freud. Webster credited Masson with making some contributions to the history of psychoanalysis, but wrote that his central argument has not convinced either the psychoanalytic establishment or the majority of Freud's critics, as Masson accepted that Freud formulated the seduction theory on the basis of memories of childhood seduction provided by his patients, an account disputed by scholars such as Cioffi, Thornton, Han Israëls, and Morton Schatzman, who have argued that Freud's original account of his therapeutic methods suggests that this
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#17327810614622596-577: A strict Methodist family; according to journalist Bob Woffinden , "His parents' work ethic meant he had much time to himself, leading to independence of thought and intellectual rebellion." He attended Sir Roger Manwood's School in Sandwich, Kent and graduated in English and American studies from the University of East Anglia. Webster returned to the university to teach in 1974 and 1975 and started
2714-408: A younger sibling by an older sibling. A 2006 study showed a large portion of adults who experienced sibling incest abuse have "distorted" or "disturbed" beliefs (such as that the act was "normal") both about their own experience and the subject of sexual abuse in general. Sibling abusive incest is most prevalent in families where one or both parents are often absent or emotionally unavailable, with
2832-415: Is a book of real stature which I hope will have wide impact. Only if we begin to understand the horrifying recesses of the human imagination can we prevent the recurrence of those dreadful, irrational persecutions which have so disfigured human history." Without my fully realising it at the time, those words influenced me deeply and I have since taken it for granted that the principal reason why we should study
2950-458: Is a popular misconception that mother–son incestuous contact is common, due to the manner in which it is depicted in the press and popular media. According to Hideo Tokuoka, "when Americans think of incest, they think of fathers and daughters; in Japan one thinks of mothers and sons" due to the extensive media coverage of mother–son incest there. Some Western researchers assumed that mother–son incest
3068-498: Is a short critical discussion of Freud written for The Great Philosophers series edited by Ray Monk and Frederic Raphael . Steven Poole calls Freud "an entertaining demolition job", noting that it discusses Anna O. 's hysteria, Freud's seduction theory, reconstructed memories, the Oedipus complex , and the influence of Wilhelm Fliess . In The Secret of Bryn Estyn: The Making of a Modern Witch Hunt (2005), Webster discusses
3186-479: Is a specific instance in which child sexual abuse in the form of forced adult–child and sibling–sibling incest took place over at least three generations. A number of Goler children were victims of sexual abuse at the hands of fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, sisters, brothers, cousins, and each other. During interrogation by police, several of the adults openly admitted to engaging in many forms of sexual activity, up to and including full intercourse, multiple times with
3304-499: Is always lawful in the Netherlands and Belgium, even among closely related family members. Sexual acts between an adult family member and a minor are illegal, though they are classified not as incest but as abuse of the authority such an adult has over a minor, comparable to that of a teacher, coach, or priest. In Florida , consensual adult sexual intercourse with someone known to be one's aunt, uncle, niece, or nephew constitutes
3422-497: Is common in Japan, but research into victimization statistics from police and health-care systems discredits this; it shows that the vast majority of sexual abuse in Japan, including incest, is perpetrated by men against young girls. While incest between adults and children generally involves the adult as the perpetrator of abuse, there are rare instances of sons sexually assaulting their mothers. These sons are typically mid-adolescent to young adult, and, unlike parent-initiated incest,
3540-426: Is condemned and considered immoral in most societies, given that it can lead to an increased risk of genetic disorders in children in case of pregnancy from incestuous sex. The incest taboo is one of the most widespread of all cultural taboos , both in present and in past societies. Most modern societies have laws regarding incest or social restrictions on closely consanguineous marriages. In societies where it
3658-488: Is demonstrated by the fact that politicians would use charges of incest (often false charges) as insults and means of political disenfranchisement. In Norse mythology , there are themes of brother–sister marriage, a prominent example being between Njörðr and his unnamed sister (perhaps Nerthus ), parents of Freyja and Freyr . Loki in turn also accuses Freyja and Freyr of having a sexual relationship. The earliest Biblical reference to possible incest involves Cain. It
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3776-1000: Is derived from the Latin incestus , which has a general meaning of "impure, unchaste". It was introduced into Middle English , both in the generic Latin sense (preserved throughout the Middle English period) and in the narrow modern sense. The derived adjective incestuous appears in the 16th century. Before the Latin term came in, incest was known in Old English as sib-leger (from sibb 'kinship' + leger 'to lie') or mǣġhǣmed (from mǣġ 'kin, parent' + hǣmed 'sexual intercourse') but in time, both words fell out of use. Terms like incester and incestual have been used to describe those interested or involved in sexual relations with relatives among humans, while inbreeder has been used in relation to similar behavior among non-human organisms. In ancient China , first cousins with
3894-645: Is illegal, consensual adult incest is seen by some as a victimless crime . Some cultures extend the incest taboo to relatives with no consanguinity, such as milk-siblings , stepsiblings, and adoptive siblings, albeit sometimes with less intensity. Third-degree relatives (such as half-aunt, half-nephew, first cousin) on average have 12.5% common genetic heritage, and sexual relations between them are viewed differently in various cultures, from being discouraged to being socially acceptable. Children of incestuous relationships have been regarded as illegitimate , and are still so regarded in some societies today. In most cases,
4012-618: Is legal, but only with the explicit permission of the Dutch government, due to the possible risk of genetic defects among the offspring. Nephew-niece marriages predominantly occur among foreign immigrants. In November 2008, the Scientific Institute of the Christian Democratic Party (CDA) announced that it wanted a ban on marriages to nephews and nieces. Consensual sex between individuals aged 16 and older
4130-475: Is not referred to as his sister. The accusations against Cambyses of committing incest are mentioned as part of his "blasphemous actions", which were designed to illustrate his "madness and vanity". These reports all derive from the same Egyptian source that was antagonistic towards Cambyses, and some of these allegations of "crimes", such as the killing of the Apis bull , have been confirmed as false, which means that
4248-419: Is not to humiliate Freud or to inflict mortal injury either on him or his followers. It is to interpret and illuminate his beliefs and his personality in order that we may better understand our own culture, our own history, and indeed, our own psychology. It is to this constructive attempt to analyse the nature and sources of Freud's mistakes that my title primarily refers." He discusses the influence on Freud of
4366-436: Is not what occurred. According to Webster, Freud's seduction theory maintained that episodes of childhood seduction would have a pathological effect only if the victim had no conscious recollection of them, and the purpose of his therapeutic sessions was not to listen to freely offered recollections but to encourage his patients to discover or construct scenes of which they had no recollection. Webster blamed Masson for encouraging
4484-727: Is painful. He cites solicitor Bilhar Singh Uppal as arguing that while Webster is right to open debate, there has been no wholesale fabrication of evidence. Damian Thompson writes that in Webster's view "investigations into child abuse in care homes in the early 1990s were disfigured by the zealotry associated with the Ritual Satanic Abuse affair". Chris Beckett writes that while Webster accepts that abuse occurs, he considers many convictions against former residential workers were miscarriages of justice and sees them as similar to witch-hunts. Beckett sees Webster's case against
4602-586: Is proportional to their parents' coefficient of relationship , a measure of how closely the parents are related genetically. However, cultural anthropologists have noted that inbreeding avoidance cannot form the sole basis for the incest taboo because the boundaries of the incest prohibition vary widely between cultures and not necessarily in ways that maximize the avoidance of inbreeding. In some societies, such as those of Ancient Egypt , brother-sister, father-daughter, mother-son, cousin-cousin, aunt-nephew, uncle-niece, and other combinations of relations within
4720-519: Is reported less often, but it is not known how close the frequency is to heterosexual incest because it is likely more under-reported. The prevalence of incest between parents and their children is difficult to estimate due to secrecy and privacy. In a 1999 news story, the BBC reported: "Close-knit family life in India masks an alarming amount of sexual abuse of children and teenage girls by family members,
4838-458: Is rumored to have had sexual relationships with all three of his sisters ( Julia Livilla , Drusilla , and Agrippina the Younger ). Emperor Claudius , after executing his previous wife, married his brother's daughter, Agrippina the Younger, and changed the law to allow an otherwise illegal union. The law prohibiting marrying a sister's daughter remained. The taboo against incest in ancient Rome
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4956-570: The New Statesman , and The Tablet . In The Observer in February 1981 Webster attacked structuralists for their "habit of reducing human nature to pseudo-mathematical formulae." "Structuralism and dry rot", Webster's article, was cited by Geoffrey Hartman as an example of how literary theory has become the focus of public debate in England. Webster published an article suggesting that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair offered
5074-576: The European Convention on Human Rights deems all familial sexual acts to be criminal, even if all parties give their full consent and are knowledgeable to all possible consequences. He also argues that the use of particular language tools in the legislation manipulates the reader to deem all familial sexual activities as immoral and criminal, even if all parties are consenting adults. In the Netherlands , marrying one's nephew or niece
5192-665: The European Court of Human Rights , Patrick Stübing lost his case that the conviction violated his right to a private and family life. On 24 September 2014, the German Ethics Council recommended that the government abolish laws criminalizing incest between siblings, arguing that such bans impinge upon citizens. Some societies differentiate between full-sibling and half-sibling relations. Marriages and sexual relationships between first cousins are stigmatized as incest in some cultures, but tolerated in much of
5310-544: The Inca rulers married their sisters. Huayna Capac , for instance, was the son of Topa Inca Yupanqui and the Inca's sister and wife. Half-sibling marriages were found in ancient Japan, such as the marriage of Emperor Bidatsu and his half-sister Empress Suiko . Japanese Prince Kinashi no Karu had sexual relations with his full sister Princess Karu no Ōiratsume, although the action was regarded as foolish. In order to prevent
5428-545: The Judaeo-Christian tradition. Webster endorses Gilbert Ryle 's arguments against mentalist philosophies in The Concept of Mind (1949), and criticizes many other authors for their treatment of Freud and psychoanalysis. The book for which Webster may be best remembered, it has been called "brilliant" and "definitive", but has also been criticized for shortcomings of scholarship and argument. It formed part of
5546-519: The Patriarch Abraham married his half-sister Sarah . Other references include the passage in 2 Samuel 13 where Amnon , King David 's son, rapes his half-sister Tamar . According to Michael D. Coogan , it would have been perfectly all right for Amnon to have married her, the Bible being inconsistent about prohibiting incest. In Genesis 19:30–38, while living in an isolated area after
5664-643: The controversy over Salman Rushdie 's novel The Satanic Verses (1988), Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis , and the investigation of sexual abuse in Britain. Born in Newington, Kent , Webster studied English literature at the University of East Anglia and lived in Oxford , England. He became interested in the problem of false allegations partly due to reading the work of historian Norman Cohn . In A Brief History of Blasphemy (1990), Webster discussed
5782-489: The "Freud legend". He suggests that the acclaim the book received shows the persistence of the Freud legend, noting that with exceptions such as Peter Swales , many reviewers praised it, especially in Britain. He saw its appeal to supporters of psychoanalysis as being its favorable view of Freudian ideas. He endorses Gilbert Ryle 's arguments against mentalist philosophies in The Concept of Mind (1949), suggesting that they imply that "theories of human nature which repudiate
5900-438: The "Freud wars", an ongoing controversy around psychoanalysis. Webster argues that Freud became a kind of Messiah and that psychoanalysis is a pseudoscience and a disguised continuation of the Judaeo-Christian tradition. He describes psychoanalysis as "perhaps the most complex and successful" pseudoscience in history, and Freud as an impostor who sought to found a false religion. However, Webster also writes that, "My ultimate goal
6018-608: The "grandiose claims" made by its publishers. He criticized Webster for maintaining that mental illness is misdiagnosed organic disease, for criticizing physicians and psychiatrists despite his lack of medical qualifications, for offering conjectural explanations of cases of hysteria and schizophrenia, for unreasonably insisting "that Freud should have acquainted us ... with every stage in his work with patients", and for misunderstanding psychoanalysis. He found Webster's criticisms of concepts such as "unconscious rage" unconvincing, accused him of "internal inconsistencies", and wrote that he "has
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#17327810614626136-510: The 'sequel' to Oedipus , Antigone , his four children are also punished for their parents' incestuousness. Incest appears in the commonly accepted version of the birth of Adonis , when his mother, Myrrha , has sex with her father, Cinyras , during a festival, disguised as a prostitute . In ancient Greece , Spartan King Leonidas I , hero of the legendary Battle of Thermopylae , was married to his niece Gorgo , daughter of his half-brother Cleomenes I . Greek law allowed marriage between
6254-797: The Graeco-Roman period. Numerous papyri and the Roman census declarations attest to many husbands and wives being brother and sister, of the same father and mother. However, it has also been argued that the available evidence does not support the view that such relations were common. The most famous of these relationships were in the Ptolemaic royal family ; Cleopatra VII was married to two of her younger brothers, Ptolemy XIII and Ptolemy XIV , whilst her mother and father, Cleopatra V and Ptolemy XII , were also brother and sister. Arsinoe II and her younger brother Ptolemy II Philadelphus were
6372-566: The Muslim response to The Satanic Verses and argues against unrestricted freedom of speech . The book was praised by Rowan Williams , the Archbishop of Canterbury . In Webster's subsequent book Why Freud Was Wrong (1995), he argued that Freud became a Messiah figure and that psychoanalysis is a disguised continuation of the Judaeo-Christian tradition. The book was praised by several commentators. In The Secret of Bryn Estyn: The Making of
6490-638: The Satanic Verses (1990), Webster discusses the controversy over Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses . The book was widely praised in the immediate aftermath of the controversy. While condemning the Ayatollah Khomeini 's threats against Rushdie, Webster also tried to explain the hurt The Satanic Verses caused Muslims and argued that we should not arbitrarily defend the liberty to publish books that may cause distress to minorities or increase racial tension. Webster noted that he named
6608-546: The abusive siblings using incest as a way to assert their power over a weaker sibling. Absence of the father in particular has been found to be a significant element of most cases of sexual abuse of female children by a brother. The damaging effects on both childhood development and adult symptoms resulting from brother–sister sexual abuse are similar to the effects of father–daughter, including substance abuse, depression, suicidality, and eating disorders. Proponents of incest between consenting adults draw clear boundaries between
6726-403: The adolescent son. Childhood sibling–sibling incest is considered to be widespread but rarely reported. Sibling–sibling incest becomes child-on-child sexual abuse when it occurs without consent, without equality, or as a result of coercion . In this form, it is believed to be the most common form of intrafamilial abuse. The most commonly reported form of abusive sibling incest is abuse of
6844-462: The age of 18; furthermore, 29% of all rapes occurred when the victim was less than 11 years old. 11% of rape victims are raped by their fathers or stepfathers, and another 16% are raped by other relatives. A study of victims of father–daughter incest in the 1970s showed that there were "common features" within families before the occurrence of incest: estrangement between the mother and the daughter, extreme paternal dominance, and reassignment of some of
6962-417: The ascending or descending line ad infinitum . Adoption was considered the same as affinity in that an adoptive father could not marry an unemancipated daughter or granddaughter even if the adoption had been dissolved. Incestuous unions were discouraged and considered nefas (against the laws of gods and man) in ancient Rome . In AD 295, incest was explicitly forbidden by an imperial edict, which divided
7080-468: The behavior of consenting adults on one hand and rape, child molestation, and abusive incest on the other. However, even consensual relationships such as these are still legally classified as incest and criminalized in many jurisdictions (although there are certain exceptions ). James Roffee, a senior lecturer in criminology at Monash University and former worker on legal responses to familial sexual activity in England and Wales, and Scotland discussed how
7198-485: The book "exceptionally searching, lucid, and well-argued", as well as "intellectually exciting" and "challenging", and noted that it was "linked to an ambitious project for a true science of human nature". He wrote that it was impossible to read it "without having one's respect for Freud shaken and diminished". However, he added that it was possible to "learn from it without accepting Webster's thesis that Freud's ideas were totally worthless." He accepted Webster's argument that
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#17327810614627316-546: The book after the fourth section of The Crime of Blasphemy , a pamphlet issued by the International Committee for the Defence of Salman Rushdie and his Publishers, and that his work is influenced by historians Karen Armstrong and Norman Cohn . He also approvingly cites Muslim writer Shabbir Akhtar. He described his book as "an attempt to show, without ever aspiring to completeness or comprehensiveness, that
7434-524: The book contains much pertinent criticism of Freud, it has been overvalued by critics of psychoanalysis because of its overly theoretical and abstract style of argument, and has also distracted attention away from issues such as Freud's character. Webster compared the former psychoanalyst Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson 's The Assault on Truth (1984) to E. M. Thornton's The Freudian Fallacy (1983), finding both authors hostile towards Freud and psychoanalysis. However, he suggested that Masson nevertheless retained
7552-467: The book was advertised on its jacket as a comprehensive biography, Webster did not expand "factual knowledge of Freud's life and work", but rather engaged in a "relentless polemic" that was "flawed in its simplifications" but "lethal in its total impact." He considered the book an important contribution despite being largely derivative. He considered Webster's evaluation of Freud as a person "provocative though tenable". He noted that Webster, despite not having
7670-526: The case of Bryn Estyn , a care home for adolescent boys which, in the 1990s, became the focus of press revelations and a police investigation for child abuse that spread across a number of residential homes in North Wales . The work, in which Webster argued that abuse scandals could be phenomena created by public hysteria, received praise from British journalists. Peter Wilby calls The Secret of Bryn Estyn "exhaustively researched", noting that while it
7788-520: The children. Sixteen adults (both men and women) were charged with hundreds of allegations of incest and sexual abuse of children as young as five. In July 2012, twelve children were removed from the 'Colt' family (a pseudonym) in New South Wales , Australia, after the discovery of four generations of incest. Child protection workers and psychologists said interviews with the children indicated "a virtual sexual free-for-all". In Japan, there
7906-517: The concept of incestus into two categories of unequal gravity: the incestus iuris gentium , which was applied to both Romans and non-Romans in the Empire, and the incestus iuris civilis , which concerned only Roman citizens. Therefore, for example, an Egyptian could marry an aunt, but a Roman could not. Despite the act of incest being unacceptable within the Roman Empire, Roman Emperor Caligula
8024-526: The council's action, and that Mr King "entirely missed the point", since, in Webster's opinion, the evidence showed that there never was a paedophile ring based at Bryn Estyn and that dozens of staff had been wrongly accused. Webster died of natural causes in 2011; he had undergone heart surgery a decade before his death. Julie Summers, who knew Webster through the Writers in Oxford group, said of him: "What
8142-648: The current interest in recovered memories, writing that his interest in writing The Assault on Truth had nothing to do with the recovery of memories, and that he did not discuss the topic in any depth. Masson argued that Webster was incorrect to claim that there is no evidence that any of Freud's patients had been sexually abused. He also criticized Webster's views on recovered memory, writing that they ignored relevant evidence. The psychologist Louis Breger saw some of Webster's points as valuable, but concluded that Webster, like some other critics of Freud, too frequently jumps "from valid criticisms of some part of Freud's work to
8260-401: The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah , Lot 's two daughters conspire to inebriate and rape their father due to the lack of available partners to continue his line of descent . Because of intoxication, Lot "perceived not" when his firstborn, and the following night his younger, daughter lay with him. Moses was also born of an incestuous marriage. Exodus 6 details how his father, Amram , was
8378-405: The early Udege people . Incest between an adult and a person under the age of consent is considered a form of child sexual abuse that has been shown to be one of the most extreme forms of childhood abuse; it often results in serious and long-term psychological trauma , especially in the case of parental incest. Its prevalence is difficult to generalize, but research has estimated 10–15% of
8496-560: The evidence he was looking for", to incorrectly concluding that all of his patients' accounts of seductions and fantasies were Freud's reconstructions, thereby undermining a sound observation. She agreed with Webster that not all dreams are wish fulfillments, but criticized him for not acknowledging that psychoanalysts have long abandoned the belief that they are. She considered Webster naive or ignorant to deny that "emotions can produce bodily phenomena", and criticized his discussion of Breuer's treatment of his patient Anna O. Why Freud Was Wrong
8614-443: The evidence of behaviour and refer solely or primarily to invisible mental events will never in themselves be able to unlock the most significant mysteries of human nature." Webster writes that the philosopher Adolf Grünbaum 's The Foundations of Psychoanalysis (1984) has been criticized by Frank Cioffi , who rejects Grünbaum's portrayal of Freud as a philosophically astute investigator of human psychology. Webster argues that while
8732-485: The false accusation against Anne Boleyn and George Boleyn was trumped up in order to ensure the king could go on to marry Jane Seymour . Sects deemed heretical, such as the Waldensians , were accused of incest. Incestuous marriages were also seen in the royal houses of ancient Japan and Korea, Inca Peru , Ancient Hawaii , and, at times, Central Africa, Mexico , and Thailand . Like the kings of ancient Egypt,
8850-514: The first in the family to participate in a full-sibling marriage, a departure from custom. A union between full siblings was counternormative in Greek and Macedonian tradition, and prohibited by the laws of at least some cities. The fable of Oedipus , with a theme of inadvertent incest between a mother and son, ends in disaster and shows ancient taboos against incest, since Oedipus blinds himself in disgust and shame after his incestuous actions. In
8968-407: The general population as having had at least one such sexual contact, with less than 2% involving intercourse or attempted intercourse. Among women, research has yielded estimates as high as 20%. Father – daughter incest was for many years the most commonly reported and studied form of incest. Mother – son incest is rarely reported. According to Catanzarite (1980), between 1965 and 1980 only
9086-647: The goodness of their hearts was amazing". Webster explained his interest in the problem of false allegations in his The Secret of Bryn Estyn (2005): ... when I was an undergraduate reading English literature at the University of East Anglia, I stumbled upon a book by the historian Norman Cohn , The Pursuit of the Millennium ... The extraordinary range and power of Cohn's book lead me to read his other work – his book about conspiracy theories and modern anti-semitism, Warrant for Genocide , and, when it appeared in 1975, Europe's Inner Demons , his study of
9204-484: The great European witch-hunt of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. All three books seek to establish the role played in history by collective fantasies and all three are concerned with "the urge to purify the world through the annihilation of some category of human beings imagined as agents of corruption and incarnations of evil." ... The Paladin paperback edition of Europe's Inner Demons , which appeared in 1976, bore on its cover these words of Anthony Storr: "This
9322-473: The growth of the psychoanalytic movement corresponds closely to the historical development of religions, but wrote that this does not necessarily discredit psychoanalysis. Twiggs described the book as readable, and wrote that it presented an effective argument and rivaled the psychiatrist Henri Ellenberger 's The Discovery of the Unconscious (1970). However, he criticized Webster for failing to address
9440-408: The heart of almost everything I have written over the last twenty years or so is the view that, in our modern, proudly rationalist attempts to break the links which tie us to our superstitious, essentially religious past, we have become profoundly muddled about our own cultural history." He noted that his investigations into police 'trawling operations', which occupied him for a number of years, were not
9558-494: The history of ideas in 19th-century Germany and Austria and was too "Anglo-centric" in his approach, and criticized him for devoting only half a page to Freud's most intellectually formative years, and ignoring published letters by Freud written during that period. He considered Webster, following Frank Sulloway , correct to emphasize that the development of Freud's theories after 1896 was mainly inspired by assumptions drawn from contemporary biology. However, he maintained that Webster
9676-412: The incidents involve some kind of physical force. Although the mothers may be accused of being seductive with their sons and inviting the sexual contact, this is contrary to evidence. Such accusations can parallel other forms of rape, where, due to victim blaming , a woman is accused of being at fault for the rape. In some cases, mother–son incest is best classified as acquaintance rape of the mother by
9794-421: The influence of the other families, Korean Goryeo dynasty monarch Gwangjong married his half-sister Daemok in the 10th century. Marriage with a family member not related by blood was also regarded as contravening morality and was therefore incest. One example of this is the 14th century Chunghye of Goryeo , who raped one of his deceased father's concubines , who was thus regarded to be his mother. In India,
9912-563: The issue demonstrate "the insatiable human appetite for narratives of evil". The rights to the book were bought by Tony Garnett , a producer of television dramas. Garnett planned a three-hour drama based on The Secret of Bryn Estyn for Britain's Channel 4, but the project was cancelled due to budget cuts. Webster published articles in Critical Quarterly , Quarto , The Literary Review , The Observer , The Bookseller , The Guardian , The Times Literary Supplement ,
10030-601: The journalist Bob Woffinden in The Guardian . Stuttaford described the book as "a formidable critique of Freud's theories and modern psychoanalytic practice". Torrey called the book "scholarly and substantive". He suggested that Webster was well suited to the task of discussing the Christian roots of Freud's ideas and credited him with providing a detailed discussion of Freud's character that revealed its "unpleasant traits", though he considered his comment that Freud had
10148-618: The largest proportion of women aged 13 to 49 who marry their close relatives are in Tamil Nadu , then Andhra Pradesh , Karnataka , and Maharashtra . While it is rare for uncle–niece marriages, it is more common in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu . In some Southeast Asian cultures, stories of incest being common among certain ethnicities are sometimes told as expressions of contempt for those ethnicities. Marriages between younger brothers and their older sisters were common among
10266-666: The most significant contributions to the debate on recovered memory therapy. Webster writes that the psychologist Hans Eysenck 's Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire (1985) contains many cogent criticisms of Freud, but criticizes Eysenck for uncritically accepting Elizabeth Thornton's argument that Joseph Breuer 's patient Anna O. suffered from tuberculous meningitis. Webster writes that some of Thomas Szasz 's arguments in The Myth of Mental Illness (1961) are similar to his, but that he disagrees with his view that hysteria
10384-898: The mother's traditional major family responsibility to the daughter. Oldest and only daughters were more likely to be the victims of incest. It was also stated that the incest experience was psychologically harmful to the woman in later life, frequently leading to low self-esteem, very unhealthy sexual activity, contempt for other women, and other emotional problems. Adults who as children were incestuously victimized by adults often suffer from low self-esteem , difficulties in interpersonal relationships, and sexual dysfunction , and are at an extremely high risk of many mental disorders, including depression , anxiety disorders , phobic avoidance reactions , somatoform disorder , substance abuse , borderline personality disorder , and complex post-traumatic stress disorder . The Goler clan in Nova Scotia
10502-567: The nephew of his mother, Jochebed . An account noted that the incestuous relations did not suffer the fate of childlessness, which was the punishment for such couples in Levitical law. It stated, however, that the incest exposed Moses "to the peril of wild beasts, of the weather, of the water, and more." Many European monarchs were related due to political marriages, such that many such marriages were between cousins of some degree, uncles and nieces, and so forth, and sometimes first cousins. This
10620-403: The otolaryngologist Wilhelm Fliess and the biologist Ernst Haeckel . Webster writes that while Ernest Jones wrote The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud (1953-1957) with the avowed objective of correcting a "mendacious legend" about Freud, Jones replaced that negative with a positive legend. Webster maintains that Jones, "did not hesitate to retouch reality wherever it seemed to conflict with
10738-435: The parents did not have the option to marry to remove that status, as incestuous marriages were, and are, normally also prohibited. A common justification for prohibiting incest is avoiding inbreeding , a collection of genetic disorders suffered by the children of parents with a close genetic relationship . Such children are at greater risk of congenital disorders, developmental and physical disability, and death; that risk
10856-444: The picture of blasphemy which is presented by the authors of International Committee's document is incomplete, and in some respects, seriously misleading." The work was praised by Rowan Williams , the Archbishop of Canterbury . Why Freud Was Wrong: Sin, Science and Psychoanalysis (1995), the book for which Webster may be best remembered, is a critique of Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis . In it, Webster argues that Freud became
10974-414: The point that psychoanalysis added a "critical dimension to a growing theory of human behavior and spirituality". McLynn described the work as "the oddest book to come my way in years". He wrote that Webster made "the most savage attack ever mounted on Freud and psychoanalysis", and offered a confused and eclectic attempt to develop a general theory of human nature. In his view, the book failed to live up to
11092-584: The police initially referred people to lawyers, they are now reluctant to do this, as it has enabled defence lawyers to undermine the credibility of witnesses, and that many of those who make successful claims through the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) lose much of the award. According to him, while Webster sees claims to CICA as vulnerable to abuse because of its low standards of proof, lawyers acting on behalf of victims observe that even making claims to CICA
11210-399: The portrait which he sought to create." Webster argues that while Peter Gay 's Freud: A Life for Our Time (1988) is presented as an objective exercise in historical scholarship, and considers the failings of psychoanalysis and Freud's mistakes, Gay nonetheless retains a reverent attitude toward Freud, preserving the myths about him created by previous biographers. Webster called these myths
11328-401: The purpose of the event. Webster, who was to have been a key speaker at the conference, had been going to discuss The Secret of Bryn Estyn . Wrexham councillor Malcolm King was quoted saying that he was "very pleased" that the council had prevented something that "would have been very hurtful to many people who have already been hurt enough". Webster stated in reply that he was "flabbergasted" by
11446-524: The repeated prosecutions and jail time they have served as a result, have caused some in Germany to question whether incest between consenting adults should be punished at all. An article about them in Der Spiegel states that the couple are happy together. According to court records, the first three children have mental and physical disabilities, and have been placed in foster care. In April 2012, at
11564-586: The report of Cambyses' supposed incestuous acts is questionable. Several of the Egyptian kings married their sisters and had several children with them to continue the royal bloodline. For example, Tutankhamun married his half-sister Ankhesenamun , and was himself the child of an incestuous union between Akhenaten and an unidentified sister-wife. Several scholars, such as Frier et al., state that sibling marriages were widespread among all classes in Egypt during
11682-400: The royal family, yet it remains problematic to determine the reliability of these accounts. According to Herodotus , Shah Cambyses II supposedly married two of his sisters, Atossa and Roxane. This would have been regarded as illegal. However, Herodotus also states that Cambyses married Otanes ' daughter Phaidyme , whilst his contemporary Ctesias names Roxane as Cambyses' wife, but she
11800-466: The same surnames (i.e. those born to the father's brothers) were not permitted to marry, while those with different surnames could marry (i.e. maternal cousins and paternal cousins born to the father's sisters). In Achaemenid Persia , marriages between family members, such as half-siblings, nieces and cousins took place but were not seen as incestuous. However, Greek sources state that brother-sister and father-daughter marriages allegedly took place inside
11918-455: The secondary literature", but described his book as "a work of total nihilism" and wrote that it contained "many factual errors" and was difficult to take seriously. Decker accepted that some of Webster's objections to Freud "had some substance", but in her view he destroyed the validity of these points by taking them to extremes. She gave as an example the way Webster moved from correctly noting that Freud "did hound some of his patients to give him
12036-408: The spread of the recovered memory movement by implying that most or all serious cases of neurosis are caused by child sexual abuse, that orthodox psychoanalysts were collectively engaged in a massive denial of this fact, and that an equally massive collective effort to retrieve painful memories of incest was required. Webster describes the critic Frederick Crews 's The Memory Wars (1995) as one of
12154-426: The term 'incest' remains widely used in popular culture to describe any form of sexual activity with a relative. In Canada, marriage between uncles and nieces and between aunts and nephews is legal. One of the most public cases of adult sibling incest in the 2000s is the case of Patrick Stübing and Susan Karolewski , a brother–sister couple from Germany. Because of violent behavior on the part of his father, Patrick
12272-566: The weakness of Freud's science and exposing his disguised continuation of the Judaeo-Christian tradition more comprehensively than any previous author. In The Great Children's Home Panic (1998), Webster discusses police investigation of sexual abuse in Britain. Christian Wolmar writes that in Webster's view "there is a grave risk of injustice against care workers because there are financial incentives" to make false claims and police have encouraged alleged victims to come forward by suggesting that they may obtain damages. Wolmar states that while
12390-470: The widespread belief that the residential care system was infiltrated by paedophile rings as well-argued. According to Beckett, Webster argues that police procedures in North Wales dangerously reverse normal police methods, by starting with suspects and then interviewing large numbers of people to find out whether a crime was committed; this process is flawed since former residents of residential homes may have motives to make false accusations. Freud (2003)
12508-496: The witch-hunts of the past is to enable us the better to recognise and oppose the witch-hunts of the present and the future. In 2005, Wrexham council decided, following legal advice, to refuse permission for Falsely Accused Carers and Teachers (FACT) North Wales, a support group for carers and teachers, to hold its conference 'False Allegations – Truthful Answers' at the Erlas Centre, one of its venues, after it learned
12626-697: The world. Currently, 24 US states prohibit marriages between first cousins, and another seven permit them only under special circumstances. The United Kingdom permits both marriage and sexual relations between first cousins. In some non-Western societies, marriages between close biological relatives account for 20–60% of all marriages. First- and second-cousin marriages are rare in Western Europe, North America, and Oceania, accounting for less than 1% of marriages, but reach 9% in South America, East Asia, and South Europe, and about 50% in regions of
12744-513: Was "oblivious to Freud's background in biology" and wrongly concluded that it was Fliess, rather than Haeckel, who led Freud to accept the view that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny . He criticized Webster for failing to consider sources of Freudian theory such as Thomas Carlyle . He considered Webster's efforts to create a "new psychology", based on neo-Darwinism, unconvincing and wrote that Webster failed to explain what it would consist of. Decker wrote that Webster showed "a commendable command of
12862-462: Was an emotional problem and that Jean-Martin Charcot 's patients were not genuinely mentally ill. Webster concludes that no "negative critique" of psychoanalysis "can ever constitute an adequate refutation" of Freud's theories, because "bad theories can only be driven out by better theories." Why Freud Was Wrong was first published in 1995 by HarperCollins. In 1996, an edition with an added preface
12980-564: Was brought up as a Methodist." This work led Margareta Petersson to describe him as being one of the few Western writers who have "tried to view the Rushdie affair from a Muslim perspective", viewing the controversy over The Satanic Verses not as a single case of confrontation between Islam and the West, but the most recent of a series of hostile encounters, which started as soon as Muhammad 's movement had grown strong. Webster once wrote, "at
13098-573: Was cited that he knew his wife and she conceived and bore Enoch. A literalist reading of this passage indicates that, during this period, there was no other woman except Eve, or there was an unnamed sister, in which case Cain had an incestuous relationship with his mother or his sister. According to the Book of Jubilees , Cain married his sister Awan . Later, in Genesis 20 of the Hebrew Bible ,
13216-462: Was described as "brilliant" by the psychiatrist Anthony Storr and the biographer Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy , and "definitive" by the philosopher Raymond Tallis , but was criticized for shortcomings of scholarship and argument by the critic Elaine Showalter . In a preface to the 1998 edition of The Assault on Truth , first published in 1984, Masson wrote that Why Freud Was Wrong had received acclaim. However, he criticized Webster for blaming him for
13334-504: Was especially true in the Habsburg , Hohenzollern , Savoy , and Bourbon royal houses. However, relations between siblings, which may have been tolerated in other cultures, were considered abhorrent. For example, the false accusation that Anne Boleyn and her brother, George Boleyn , had committed incest was one of the reasons given for both being executed in May 1536. Historians agree that
13452-651: Was founded in 1988 by Webster and was primarily involved in publishing images of the Suffolk Heritage Coast, painted by Stanley Spencer, Philip Wilson Steer and J M W Turner. Webster also used the press to self-publish his books. In 2011, The Orwell Press became Orwell Press Art Publishing. "Since that time our range of cards has grown from 50 images to over 200, and now include some of the best art of our favourite places in Great Britain." In A Brief History of Blasphemy: Liberalism, Censorship and
13570-701: Was published. In 2005, an edition with a new postscript was published by The Orwell Press. The work has been translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Hungarian. Why Freud Was Wrong received positive reviews from Genevieve Stuttaford in Publishers Weekly , the psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey in National Review , and the critic David Lodge in Commonweal , a mixed review from Dennis G. Twiggs in Library Journal , and
13688-590: Was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize , it went largely unnoticed by the British press. Wilby writes that Webster compares modern scandals of mass abuse to the witch-hunts of the Middle Ages . Journalist Catherine Bennett credits Webster with exposing "the hysteria and false accusations generated by the Bryn Estyn children's home investigations", and writes that in his view the uncritical press reports about
13806-678: Was so special about him was he had this very gentle, but very, very clear view on things. You could always rely on him to cut through the mud and see exactly the point of an issue. He had a very clear mind." Webster had spent much of the year assisting Portuguese contacts to expose the Casa Pia child sexual abuse scandal as, in Webster's opinion, a scare. A book was subsequently published, Casa Pia: Portugal's high society paedophile ring. Fact or fantasy? . Webster also left behind an unfinished book, The Natural History of Human Beings . Webster owned and controlled his own press, "The Orwell Press". It
13924-548: Was taken in at the age of 3 by foster parents, who adopted him later. At the age of 23 he learned about his biological parents, contacted his mother, and met her and his then 16-year-old sister Susan for the first time. The now-adult Patrick moved in with his birth family shortly thereafter. After their mother died suddenly six months later, the siblings became intimately close, and had their first child together in 2001. By 2004, they had had four children together: Eric, Sarah, Nancy, and Sofia. The public nature of their relationship, and
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