Abstract

This essay is about the common experiences of survivors of incest trauma and the psychiatric label of “borderline personality disorder” which harms their interests by keeping attention away from much needed societal changes. I draw a parallel with the survivors of a severe storm, seeking to illustrate the severe dii culties of incest survivors in a society that stigmatizes and marginalizes them. Because of negative thinking about incest survivors and their personalities and the societal minimization of incest as a serious trauma, the aftermath of incest is, in important respects, dif erent from and more layered than the aftermath of a natural catastrophe