Putting a face on "consensual incest": Odd statement of Phillips

by smkovalinsky | September 23, 2009 at 11:20 am
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Oprah and Mackenzie Phillips

"I can't be the only one this has happened to," Phillips said. "Someone needs to put a face on consensual incest."


Former child star calls father "  a very tortured man".  


Former child star (best known for her role as 'Julie'  on the feminist '70 sit-com,  "One Day at a Time",  co-starring Valerie Bertinelli )  and long time drug addict and rehab patient Mackenzie Phillips has a new tell-all book,  with excerpts preluded on Oprah.  No doubt this "affair",  which began when the actress was only eleven,  and went on until she was 21,  actually occurred.  Drugs muddle the mind and dissolve the boundaries.  Any father who would do drugs with his child would most likely not be squeamish about initiating sex with her,  either.  

I find it odd that Phillips speaks of "putting a face on consensual incest",  although no doubt it did become consensual.  But it is a very strange consent.  The daughter who depends on the father is not likely to object if this is what he seems to want or need.   Freud and Jung as well,  spoke of the naturalness of incestual longing and fantasy.  Jung went so far as to speak of the "royal"  nature of the incest between father and daughter,  but it is likely he was thinking more of the quasi-love affair  -  such as the young Clara Schumann is said to have had with her father  -  than the lurid drug fueled sex which occurred in Phillip's case.


Colin Wilson in his book,  Jung:  Lord of the Underworld  goes on to explain that Jung had some discomfort in confronting a female patient who had had consensual incest sex with her brother.  But the upper class from which many of his patients came,  is always rife with such tales.    In any case,  although I have always found Ms. Phillips abrasive,  I certainly cannot judge her,  as none of us not in her shoes  know what would become of us had we had such a father.   

CHICAGO — Former child star Mackenzie Phillips said Wednesday her father, John Phillips, who was a leader of the 1960s pop group the Mamas and the Papas, raped her when she was a teenager and that her sexual relationship with him later became what she termed "consensual."

Mackenzie Phillips writes in her new book, "High on Arrival," that she had sex with her father on the night before she was to get married in 1979 at age 19, according to People magazine.

Phillips wrote in her book: "I woke up that night from a blackout to find myself having sex with my own father."

She told "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in an interview that aired Wednesday that her siblings "definitely have a problem with this." Winfrey also read a statement from Genevieve Waite, John Phillips' wife at the time of the alleged abuse and Mackenzie's stepmother. Waite's statement said John Phillips was "incapable, no matter how drunk or drugged he was, of having such a relationship with his own child."

Phillips, 49, who starred on TV's "One Day at a Time," said the sexual relationship with her father lasted a decade and ended when she became pregnant and didn't know who had fathered the child. She had an abortion, which her father paid for, and "and I never let him touch me again."

Phillips told Winfrey that she first tried cocaine when she was 11 years old. Her father did drugs with her, taught her to roll joints and injected her with cocaine. Phillips said she's been clean for a year after pleading guilty to possessing cocaine and entering a drug treatment program.

She said she confronted her father in the early stages of the abuse, which she described as rape.

"My dad said, 'Raped you? Don't you mean when we made love?' And in that moment I thought, 'Wow, I'm really on my own here,'" Phillips said. She learned to turn her anger toward herself and "boxed it away" rather than think about the drug-fueled incest, she said.

Phillips said she doesn't hate her father, who died in 2001 of heart failure at the age of 65.

"I understand that he was a very tortured man and ... passed that torture down to me," she said.

Phillips said the sexual relationship, although she believes it eventually became consensual, was "an abuse of power" and "a betrayal" on her father's part. She said she forgave John Phillips on his deathbed.

"I can't be the only one this has happened to," Phillips said. "Someone needs to put a face on consensual incest."

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1
Arbol

But... I thought the Bible had already put a face on consensual incest? Lol.

1
Roy C

I am going to have to check out that Colin Wilson book. He has great information (Wilson) but he is not a great thinker.

I loved The Occult and The Criminal History of Mankind and Mysteries.


1
Roy C

Actually, Arbol, Christians follow the New Testament, not the Old Testament, and there are a host of differences.

Putting a human face on consensual incest is definitely not part of the New Testament, Arbol. Were you aware of that?

Not directed at you, Arbol, but as a general comment, so many people have just a superficial knowledge of the history of the Bible and don't know even elementary information such as what the distinguishing features of the Old vs New Testament would be due to our secularization, material and consumer culture, and the consequent denigration of religion, an over-criticism that won't allow for any admission of value.


1
hc

Then could Christians please quit quoting Sodom and Gomorrah when they sling their homosexual hatred.

2
QueensHart

This is in way too deep water to really discuss.  Too many terms that need definitions . Jung's works are way too extensive to reference except of course everyone knows that ultimately he told Bill who started the 12 step program when he could not stop drinking that the only solution is a spiritual one .  Which boils down to living one day or hour at a time asking continuously for help from a higher power.  The power can be anything you believe in.  They have to have a sponsor they talk to daily to be completely honest with.  A tough one for a user for they are very good liars.  12 steps is another way too deep for here.  This led to the development of ACA Adult Children of Alcoholics.  A laundry list was published to see if you meet the requirements.  The list applies to any dysfunctional family.  Families who have one with a serious illness that the whole family has to revolve around also have the same behaviors.Children of Gamblers , Workaholics, OCd.   etc. etc.

In common lay language like John Bradshaw uses in inner child work and Alice Miller of course is one to study.  The wounded child always spins fantasies in order to not face the truth of the abandonment of the father.  Until they can get out of their brain using words to deny the truth of what happened and let their body feel the pain of the abuse they will continue to find supplies to keep them "feeling" (it is of course not a real feeling) the adrenalin of excitement that they are alive.  One can never talk about their father matter of factly without a hell of a lot of bioenergetic or primal work and even then may need to stay away from the illness of the parent

For years I could explain in detail why my Mother was not able to love me.  Until I stopped making excuses for her behavior and let the child in me feel the pain of being treated like an object did the healing start.

I do not know what therapies Mackenzie has used but I can tell you one year is not enough.

In the process of recovery they really should not talk about it for quite a while except with people who are doing the same .  They are the ones who can stop them when they start as they call it  "bullshitting ya".

I t is never a consensual relationship.  A child submits because their ultimate fear is to be abandoned by their parent.  If this is what they have to do for crumbs of love they will do it.

Anyone with just about any awareness knows that children who have been taken away from their parents because of abuse beg to go back.  ..and unfortunately our laws allow them to after very little help.  Another factor observed is , "whatever is familiar to them is their "normal" so that is the defense they also use to cope.  Even change for the better is frightening to dysfunctional children and parents.  They often sabotage their recovery to recreate the conditions that they were pulled out of.

She is far from an expert on what has happened to her. I am too  with this bit of information..  This is typical hollywood to go out and need the attention..it is a sign that they are still vulnerable.  Real healing takes place quietly with others just like them and continual connection with a mentor. 

 That much of abuse to her brain as she was not even fully developed has stunted her thinking function.  It takes years and possibly never for them to not have blackouts.  A blackout is not falling down drunk.  It is a memory loss.  They honestly do not remember saying or doing certain things . This is a phenomenon with alcohol but I am not expert on cocaine's long term affects.

I recommend John Bradshaw and Alice Miller.  Jung is better for later years.

Children of Alcoholics, World Service Organization,


The ACOA Laundry List

These are some characteristics we seem to have in common due to being brought up in an alcoholic household.

We became isolated and afraid of people and authority figures.
We became approval seekers and lost our identity in the process.
We are frightened by angry people and any personal criticism.
We either become alcoholics, marry them, or both, or find another compulsive personality such as a workaholic to fulfill our sick abandonment needs.
We live life from the viewpoint of victims and are attracted by that weakness in our love and friendship relationships.
We have an overdeveloped sense of responsibility and it is easier for us to be concerned with others rather than ourselves. This enables us not to look too closely at our own faults.
We get guilt feelings when we stand up for ourselves instead of giving in to others.
We become addicted to excitement.
We confuse love with pity and tend to "love" people who we can "pity" and "rescue".
We have stuffed our feelings from our traumatic childhoods and have lost the ability to feel or express our feelings because it hurts so much (denial).
We judge ourselves harshly and have a very low sense of self-esteem.
We are dependent personalities who are terrified of abandonment and will do anything to hold on to a relationship in order not to experience painful abandonment feelings which we received from living with sick people who were never there emotionally for us.
Alcoholism is a family disease and we became para-alcoholics and took on the characteristics of the disease even though we did not pick up the drink. Para-alcoholics are reactors rather than actors.

 

 

 

0
Paschen

The Oedipus complex , in psychoanalytic theory, is a group of largely unconscious (dynamically repressed) ideas and feelings which centre around the desire to possess the parent of the opposite sex and eliminate the parent of the same sex.The complex is named after the Greek mythical character Oedipus.


1
Arbol

I don't know if that would be the definite reason behind this specific case, but if it was then it would be the Electra complex. However, the theory says this 'confusion' begins in early childhood, and the sexual relationship between Mackenzie Phillips and her father began after she'd grown up. And she said she was RAPED first, meaning she was clearly no "in love" with him (She even wrote: "Your father is supposed to protect you, not f* you"). Moreover, Mackenzie never talked about "hating" her mother, as far as I know. Freudian theories are too rigid and many cases may end up unexplained. I would call this a case of Stockolm Syndrome at best, but the drug abuse is another factor to keep in mind, and may too explain their behavior.

In the end, only she and her father know the reason. It's a tragic story. That's why I posted the first comment. I think discussing this leads nowhere. This is just one of those stories where all you can do is learn the lesson and love and protect your children from similar abuses.

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Roy C
First Flagged at 1:19 PM, Sep 23, 2009 by Roy C
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