Conquering Incest by Diane Champe

Diane Champe spent years in therapy (and often in psychiatric wards) dealing with the results of her father’s abuse. This book is about the major problems that victims of family violence often face. The first one is that the abusers are in a “respectable” career where nobody wants to think badly of them. The second problem is that the wives of the abusers are trapped. Diane Chape’s father was a naval officer, and her brother also had a strong career in the Navy. She was trapped in her father’s home, and later trapped in an abusive marriage. The abuse from her husband was more emotional than physical, but it was just as bad. As for the years after she left home, the mental strain would last a lifetime, with constant trips to the hospital.

Perhaps a lot of the author’s troubles had to do with the time and place? She was a product of the “baby boom,” and that was an era when authority was never questioned. Parents, teachers, and clergymen were considered “authority” and could not be accused of abusing children. Her father was a Navy officer who worked his way up from the ranks, and even if she’d gone to the police and said “my father has been raping me ever since I was three years old,” who would believe her? As late as the 1980’s, when she finds that her brother is molesting his kids, it was still difficult to prosecute someone for child molestation.

One of the things that the author discovers in her search for closure is that the incest ran in her father’s family. I suspected from the beginning that his family had a history of casual incest and child abuse, and though I don’t mean to stereotype, it may have had a lot to do with the Old South. A lot of southern families came from a culture that was violent, and sexual deviance can be passed down through generations.

The second half of the book is repetitive, because it focuses on the author’s years of therapy. Every year there are trips to the hospital, extended leaves from work, and dealing with her father and brother, both of whom make excuses for their behavior. At least she has a strong career, with the same company for twenty years, because as she says “I was taught to do as I was told.”

But one thing troubles me; at the end she says that her brother became a minister after leaving the Navy and started his own church. I wonder what will happen as a result, will that give him access to children? If so, will he molest those kids as well? His first wife divorced him, and he served a very short sentence for raping his daughter. Will he find a lonely single mom with three kids, win her over, and abuse those kids too?