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This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it.

EV0591

Incestuous families: a factory of offenders; breaking the intergenerational cycle

INCESTUOUS FAMILIES: A FACTORY OF OFFENDERS

Incest should be understood as a familial syndrome sustained by secrecy, shame, power, and distorted relational roles; breaking the cycle requires prioritizing victim safety, ensuring perpetrator accountability, and providing specialized care addressing family dynamics.

The aim is to discuss, within a clinical framework, the intergenerational cycle of abuse in incestuous families and how this cycle can be broken without causing retraumatization. The poster combines a conceptual review with 15 years of experience providing specialized outpatient treatment to families involved in incest at the Hospital das Clínicas of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, describing a psychoanalytically oriented approach. Early relational trauma is reported to be associated with neurobiological changes and increased vulnerability to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), complex PTSD, anxiety, depression, dissociation, substance abuse, self-harm, and suicidality. For victims, the clinical approach targets trauma processing through trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) and EMDR, emotion regulation, and the restoration of safety and self-worth; for perpetrators, it addresses accountability, cognitive distortions, empathy, emotion regulation, impulse control, and relapse prevention; at the family level, it targets healthy boundaries, parental and child roles, communication, recognition of abuse, and prevention of retraumatization. In the program, families are seen every two weeks by pairs of psychotherapists, with external supervision supporting the team as they work with intense primitive psychic dynamics; 'impact psychotherapy' focuses on naming and articulating the traumatic reality, addressing the reversal of parental and child functions, and reorganizing family roles. The poster emphasizes that family reunification must never be automatic and that victim safety takes priority; it notes that psychiatric sequelae are common and recommends that a trauma-informed approach prioritize stabilization and avoid retraumatization, while pharmacotherapy should target specific symptoms alongside psychotherapy. Prevention is outlined through the stages of prevention, recognition, disclosure, specialized family care, and prevention; the conclusion states that breaking the cycle requires protecting the victim, holding the perpetrator accountable, addressing family dynamics, and preventing retraumatization together.

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