My Perverted Family: 2. Amy’s Story
Not every family is like mine. Most so-called normal families are governed by what is known as the “Westermarck Effect.” The Westermarck effect, or reverse sexual imprinting, is a hypothetical psychological effect through which people who live in close domestic proximity during the first few years of their lives become desensitized to sexual attraction. That simply means that they are not sexually attracted to one another. This phenomenon was first hypothesized by Finnish anthropologist Edvard Westermarck in his book The History of Human Marriage (1891) as one explanation for the incest taboo. However, several studies seem to contradict the standard view of the Westermarck effect as a natural learning process; instead, it may be a cultural phenomenon. People seem to have sexual preferences toward faces that resemble their parents’ or their own. If correct, this …