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Siblings: Sex and Violence By Juliet Mitchell ( Polity )
Release Date: 2004-01-07
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Product Description
Siblings and all the lateral relationships that follow from them are clearly important and their interaction is widely observed, particularly in creative literature. Yet in the social, psychological and political sciences, there is no theoretical paradigm through which we might understand them. In the Western world our thought is completely dominated by a vertical model, by patterns of descent or ascent: mother or father to child, or child to parent. Yet our ideals are 'liberty, equality and fraternity' or the 'sisterhood' of feminism; our ethnic wars are the violence of 'fratricide'.
When we grow up, siblings feature prominently in sex, violence and the construction of gender differences but they are absent from our theories. This book examines the reasons for this omission and begins the search for a new paradigm based on siblings and lateral relationships.
This book will be essential reading for those studying sociology, psychoanalysis and gender studies. It will also appeal to a wide general readership.
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Where were the parents.
March 13, 2005
(c)2005 Jean Hantman www.psychoanalysisfrp.com
On "Siblings" by Juliet Mitchell
Polity Press, 2003
"I was struck that the father was not credited with any role in the aetiology of Sarah's
illness." J. Mitchell
Mitchell, a brilliant psychoanalyst has written a book that is certainly a valuable addition to psychoanalytic literature.
All the stories we hear from patients about the major influence their brothers and sisters have
had on their psychic lives has been a significant omission in the literature. She makes a good
case for considering that the core event in many people's lives revolve around their experience
with their siblings.
And yet the question remains: Where are the parents? Where were the parents?
Mitchell herself writes: "Western psychiatrists and psychotherapists confirm that sibling
incest occurs most frequently in the context of an absence of vertical--usually, that is
parental--care. Although the context will change the implications considerably, the child feels
this neglect very acutely... the absence of adult protection is present in all cases" (italics
mine).
What then could the reason be for shifting etiology from the vertical (parental) to the
lateral (sibling)?
Mitchell makes the same omission that Freud does with the Oedipus myth: the circumstances
of Oedipus' birth and infancy: his parents abandoned him when he was born. Both Freud and
Mitchell (and most other Oedipists) skip to the patricide and incest part of the story, stricken
with the usual psychoanalytic amnesia concerning Oedipus' abandonment at birth by his parents.
Later on, when writing about patients' childhood experiences, the same amnesia and omission is
repeated. Focus on incestuous fantasies and activities and ignore the historical abandonment,
the 'absence of adult protection'. All of us in practice repeatedly hear about bad things
happening to our patients in childhood, and for some reason we collude with them by not asking
the obvious questions: Well, where were your parents?
And, because we can't be protecting the children every minute of the day, the equally
important questions: Could you tell your parents about it afterwards? Did they help you? Why not?
Raise your hand if you left your little boys and girls together in a room and walked away
for longer than it takes for one of them to get hurt. And how many times did you turn your back?
Once? Twice? Always? Where are the parents? Where were the parents?
Let's say we can't control every second of our children's time in a home. Anyone out
there let a violent situation go by without immediately taking to task the brother or sister who
stepped over the physical line and hurt his or her sibling? So that the violent child knew that
you, the parent, were unconflicted about demanding a home in which the difference between verbal
anger (murderous wishes) and physical assault (murderous actions) is discussed constantly, and
discussed again and again, and understood and abided by?
And in those (hopefully) rare situations when you (or designated other adult) weren't
where you were supposed to be, protecting your kids from their violent impulses, didn't you
generate discussion afterwards with them about the difference between impulse and action, until
they learned to put their wishes into words, discussions, stories, art etc. forever after (i.e.,
civilization), rather than punches and pushing, or repression resulting in hysteria, in homes
where discussions are forbidden?
Most of my patients have horror stories to tell about unpleasant or unspeakable
experiences they had with their siblings over time. Sometimes I wonder to myself, and sometimes
I ask, "Where were your parents when this was going on?"
This is not to discount the pain lived by people who experienced sibling violence and
deprivation and unfulfilled longing. But I continue to disagree that these experiences are core
rather than secondary to parents who look the other way. Calling sibling violence the core
issue, rather than secondary--the consequence of parents who turn their heads--is another way of
protecting the bad object.
Who is behind the secrecy that siblings share and suffer from? Are babies born learning
to keep secrets from the people who are supposed to be protecting them from danger, or are they
taught to silence themselves, and by whom? Where are the parents?
There are so many ways that therapists from every discipline protect parents from
admitting responsibility for how the phantasies of the children are negotiated in the home.
Mitchell's book, though wonderfully rich in clinical material and meticulous research, is an
addition to that particular literature, the literature that protects the bad object by drawing
attention away from the source. My own preference for the title would be "Siblings Whose Parents
Turn Their Backs". Same material, same research, same case illustrations, different core issue,
different title.
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