**5. Sexual harassment as an equivalent of incest**

Sexual harassment is characterized by the use of the pleasure principle by means of the endosomatic power given by the professional function, without respecting the reality principle that the other imposes to the harasser. Sexual harassment committed by doctors is considered an abusive, unethical, and incestuous act, due to the asymmetric nature of the doctor-patient relationship. (Cohen et al. 2009). All situations presented in this discussion, such as teacher-student and priest-churchgoer relationships, and those with hierarchic superiors, fit in what is called polymorphous incest or equivalent of incest.

In order to understand polymorphous incest or the equivalent of incest, it is important to observe some particular aspects related to human relationships. Depending on the place that one occupies in a given context, peer relationship is different. To Cohen, these relationships may be symmetric or asymmetric.

Asymmetric relationships among relatives and members of a family determine the following functions: the father as the one who sets the laws; the mother as the holder of emotions; the children as the ones who will learn to deal with reality. The objective of the family, in a given cultural context, is preservation. Professional relationships also fit in this asymmetric classification. Vertically, they are equivalent to the parent-child relationship, because they build this hierarchic scenario, with power and specific laws (Cohen, 1999).

Social and erotic relationships are symmetric. Social relationships are those between friends and have as objectives protection of the individuals and preservation of the social group; the values of the individuals in the group are similar. Erotic relationships make people close when seeking sexual pleasure, and may also have the objective of preservation of the species (Cohen, 1999).

We demonstrated that the search for sex relationships with peers with whom there is trust bond or preexistence of a professional relationship end up on Oedipal fantasies. Not even the superego or social moral will function as repressors, in a way that desire goes beyond limits.

Considering the Sexual Harassment as an Equivalent Incestuous 221

Class entities, represented by social institutions, should reflect upon polymorphous incest and its individual and social consequences, in order to approach the problem in an

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unprejudiced way.

**7. References** 

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This is the problem. The law exists, it is the moral factor. However, respecting it or not depends on individual ethics, because moral is imposed, and ethics have to be lived and understood. Ethics are based on the perception of the conflicts of psychological life (emotion vs. reason), and in the condition – that can be acquired - that we take coherent positions when facing these conflicts.

Not everybody lives and solves conflicts in an ethical manner, because psychological structure is not always adjusted for good mental functioning. Under the psychoanalytical point of view, the Ego should deal with internal and external conflicts. The ego has the function of better understanding ethics, because it is the part of the psychological apparatus that deals with pulsions that come from the Id, and orders that come from the Superego. (Cohen and Segre, 2008)

People who sexually harass other have a huge difficulty in adapting to the reality principle. Their emotions do not respect reason, because they are not able to take coherent positions when facing the limits and social functions imposed to them. The equivalent of incest, that is, power over the others given by social power, is repeated in sexual harassment when a boss starts to feel like a father, who has power over all the other members of the family and consequently, may abuse them.
