Human Development

Incest

Description:
According to Jung, the incestuous feelings or fantasies experienced by a child may be an unconscious attempt to enrich his or her personality through deep and meaningful emotional contact with a parent. While this enrichment occurs, with an emotional bond assisting in the maturation process, the incest taboo makes the child normally safe from having these fantasies physically acted out; it also makes the focus of the sexual impulse a definite individual and assists in viewing the marriage partner also as an individual when this stage is reached.
An adult may regress in an incestuous manner, although without necessarily a focus on one person. This is an attempt at spiritual and psychological regeneration, a mystic or creative reverie from which may spring the artistic process.
Related:
Regression