**1. Introduction**

208 Sexual Abuse – Breaking the Silence

[14] Parsons LH, Zaccaro D, Wells B, Stovall TG. Methods of and attitudes toward

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screening obstetrics and gynecology patients for domestic violence. Am J Obstet

Relationships formed in a professional setting may involve conflicts of interest arising from social functions determined by institutions, such as family, church, codes of ethics and labor laws. In these relationships, we can see emotions, characteristic of human beings, but which are limited by factors imposed by cultural identity. As every society develops its own culture, individuals acquire their values in relation to the social context in which they live. This cultural identity influences the creation of norms of conducts and the values linked to it.

An encounter with another person will always cause some sort of emotional disturbance, due to the adaptation to the presence of the other. This disturbance predominantly originates from our understanding of social structures and respect for the freedom of others, and can be perceived in different forms.

One of the forms of adaptation to the presence of the other emotional disturbance is sexual harassment, which is either an intimidation, bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or an unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange of sexual favors (Paludi, 1991).

It includes a wide range of behaviors, from seemingly mild transgressions and annoyances, to actual sexual abuse or assault (Dziech, 1990).

It may also occur in a variety of different settings. For example, in education, many scholars point out that sexual harassment remains a "forgotten secret," with educators and administrators refusing to admit that the problem exists in their schools, or accepting their legal and ethical responsibilities to deal with it (Ibid).

Sexual abuse commonly occurs in workplaces, and can have several different forms, such as unwanted jokes, gestures, offensive words about clothing, unwelcome comments and wordplay, repeated requests for dates that are turned down, or unwanted flirting. It can be

Considering the Sexual Harassment as an Equivalent Incestuous 211

sexually harassed, and 5.3% of interviewees admitted having sexually harassed others (Women Watch-China, 2010). This research team suggested helping companies to establish a mechanism to prevent sexual harassment at work, besides discussing and improving laws

Sexual harassment is characterized by different actions, which may be comments of sexual nature such as jokes, insinuations or wordplay, or even verbal and physical abuse to obtain sexual favors. We have to emphasize here that sexual harassment is related with undesirable conducts that are not pleasurable for the receptor, that is, they are imposed, and uncorresponded. That is when we can see the difference with conducts in corresponded

However, sexual harassment has a component of the neurotic behavior in hysteria, observed by Freud when dealing with hysteria in three essays on sexuality. In hysteria, there is a contradiction: excessive sexual need on one side, and excessive sexual repression on the other. The person affected by this disorder likes to be harassed, and many times demonstrates interest in the proposal. However, he or she cannot act on it, and unconsciously uses this ambivalence, with a secondary benefit, playing the role of the

Sexual harassment is one of the offenses to sexual freedom, and the perpetrator may be any person, men, women, and even the victim. However, what we would like to emphasize here is the contribution of the victim to the offense. As in the case of any crime, sexual harassment is also analyzed in criminology, the science that studies crime, criminality and their causes: the victim, social control of the criminal act, personality of the criminal and the

Shecaria ( 2011 ) emphasizes that "victim studies are very important, because they enable the examination of the role of the victim as a trigger of the crime. Besides, they enable the study on judicial, moral, psychological and therapeutic assistance, especially in cases of violence or severe threat to the person, crimes that leave marks or traumas, making it possible to determine adequate measures, and enabling the indemnification of the victims

Elias Neuman (1984), an Argentinean criminologist, emphasized that the victim may be the triggering factor in the etiology of crime and, in certain cases and circumstances, may assume a posture that contributes to the offense. In some cases, the notion of the victim's

The worldwide trend is to relate sexual harassment to the work environment. In some countries, sexual harassment at work is considered a crime, whereas in other countries in

The workplace is where several people have their jobs and, generally, have an intimate relationship for long periods. This environment creates an opportunity for people to get close to each other. This intense relationship between work colleagues may give rise to intimate relationships that may even lead to marriage, and it is an absolutely normal fact of life that people meet each other, feel attracted and decide to consolidate affective

and regulations on the issue.

affective relationships.

way to insert him/her back into society.

innocence should be set aside.

relationships.

by state programs, as occurs in several countries..."

the Middle East, there are no regulations on the subject.

victim.

anything of sexual nature, from verbal to physical behavior (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission).

Polymorphous incest, according to Cohen (1992), "involves sexual relationships between people that take advantage of their positions or jobs to have sexual satisfaction with someone who has a subaltern position, and is considered an equivalent of incest". Professional relationships are vertically asymmetric, and may be equivalent to the parentchild relationship, that is, they have hierarchy of power and specific laws.

There is a relationship of power between bosses and their subordinates, between psychoanalysts and their patients, professors and students. This relationship of power is the central point of this discussion, because it has an element of social control in it (Foucault, 1993).

According to Foucault, sexuality and politics are the two most important taboos in society, with discourses filled with the search for desire and power, the struggle for control and the prohibitions related to them. (Foucault, 1993)

Our proposal is to demonstrate that sexual harassment in a professional environment is a type of incest and cannot be simply classified as sexual assault. In these cases, besides the abuse of power, violence towards the victim is frequent, and because of these factors, sexual harassment is called "polymorphous incest".

We will use Freud's psychoanalytical theory to explain the basis of sexual development, how sexuality develops normally, and what causes certain deviations in a way that a human being will show socially unacceptable sexual.
