**3. Institutions: Ethical and moral aspects**

212 Sexual Abuse – Breaking the Silence

However, there are situations in which affection is not corresponded. In these cases, sexual coercion may be practiced by people in superior hierarchic position, constituting sexual harassment. The behavior of the harasser may be beyond reasonable standards, and may involve exchanging sexual favors for permanence on the job; inadequate invitations

Studies carried out in Brazil (Cohen et al.), and in other parts of the world (China and Egypt) demonstrated that women are more harassed than men. However, we should consider that, even if less frequent, men are also harassed. There is, though, a dark figure, because men do not report the crime because of fear of prejudice. Fazary (2004 ) states that "The 'dark figure' of crime is not some sinister character but a theory that postulates that we do not know how much crime is out there, and that with current methods of studying of

Failure to report an offense is very common, especially in cases of sexual abuse. There is a certain embarrassment on the part of victims to make the event public. In 1994, the matter was dealt with by the American film industry in the film "Disclosure", directed by Barry Levinson, a film on sexual harassment in which the man who is harassed by his new female

The United States were the first country to make sexual harassment a crime, on the second half of the 1970s. From this moment on, other countries considered sexual harassment a crime. Among them, Spain, Portugal, France and Italy. In Brazil, it was introduced as a sex

Although Brazilian regulations have make sexual harassment in the workplace a crime, we emphasize that the problem is much wider, as we will show in this discussion. Although there is a law that criminalizes sexual harassment, seldom do harassed people seek legal compensation for the problem. In most of the cases, the final legal decisions are do not favor

According to Pamplona Filho (2001 ), sexual harassment is any unwanted conduct of sexual nature which, although turned down, is continuously repeated, restricting the sexual freedom of the victim. This conduct is a violation of the free use of one's own body, and is deeply embarrassing. When occurs at the workplace, consequences are even more

However, this author, when dealing with the free use of the body, show us that sexual harassment may occur in other places and other social relationships, such as the academic world (professors, students, education workers); in hospitals (among doctors, aides and

These relationships, and even those between a boss and an employee, have an ethicalinstitutional structuring function that is called polymorphous incest or equivalent of incest. Institutions and relationships established between peers are moralistic and paternalistic, a reflection of the parent-child relationship (incest itself) and of its endogamy prohibition

In this context, Brazilian laws also consider it a crime, because it is another type of sex offense, such as rape. Penalties are greater when the offense is practiced by someone who

patients); in the religious world (among clergy and churchgoers).

involving promotions, and other situations.

crime we have no way of knowing the truth".

offense in the penal code only in 2001.

boss.

those who appeal.

devastating.

(Cohen, 1999).

It is important to demonstrate that laws are created based on a set of social factors. The most important of these factors are the institutions. Bleger (2001) defines institution as a set of norms that generate social values. Their essential function is to create rules for groups of individuals. The function of the Institution is to create values that transcend and characterized the individual. The institution comes before the professional relationship.

Social institutions are some of the ways that society uses to achieve satisfaction. In order to do that, regulatory tools are created and imposed to those who they aim at regulating. In Brazil and other countries, there are class entities that create norms of conduct for their members. Social acceptance of a given ideology, such as health, justice, or disease, is carried out by these entities. Institutes are moral representatives of the Institution. They are professional boards, courts, family, and others.

Conduct norms are filled with values that are linked to the interests of the institutions. What is expected from one professional is not always applicable to the other: expectations on the conduct of a teacher are different from those of a doctor, and so on. Institutions function as defense mechanisms against the most primitive anguishes of humans, strengthen the ego of their members, and make it possible for them to carry out their jobs (Jaques, 1969).

According to Cromberg's understanding "… when thinking that humans should be analyzed by their conscious acts and by social codes, I do not consider these codes allembracing, once sexual and aggressive pulsions resist being domesticated by social codes, and make the psychological reality of humans highly complex. Besides, there is more to reality than that. There are intersubjective relationships that are not moderated only by social codes or necessity. These relationships produce imaginary effects that are privileged members of our psychological reality" (Cromberg, 2004).

Society establishes social codes based on cultural parameters, and does not accept sexual abuse. It will punish the aggressor once he/she is considered guilty. Different from the legal system, the activity of psychoanalysis is not limited to the identification of the aggressor, and to holding him/her accountable for what he/she did. It does not place the victim in a passive position, either. Human nature is more complex and mysterious than we can imagine.

Cromberg (2004), when talking about aggressive pulsions, does not refer to innate human nature, but to natural inclination towards aggressiveness.

When conduct norms are created, there are moral and ethical issues, with which we deal differently. Moral encompasses three characteristics: the values determined by it, which are not questioned; the fact that these values are imposed to everybody, and the punishment, when rules are disobeyed (Cohen and Segre, 2008). The expression of the values of society is given by the laws. Laws are not warranties of human behavior, once respecting the law depends on ethics, which are experienced differently by each member of society. Some accept the limits better than others. Institutions, with their conduct norms, abhor the

Considering the Sexual Harassment as an Equivalent Incestuous 215

complex has a fundamental role in structuring the personality and in directing human desire Oedipal feelings come and go throughout life. As castration does not take place, there is nothing to prevent both the desire and the action. In this case, the problem is that the

Cohen et al. analyzed sexuality from a bioethical viewpoint, and observed that it is impossible to ignore the evolution of sexual context and ethics throughout history (Cohen et

When analyzing the historical aspects of human sexuality, Foucault brings an important contribution: the human being, in all its dimensions - social, politic, mental, ideological, cultural – is the central factor. For him, "the great game in history will be won by those who take hold of the rules, who take power from the ones who use power; it will be won by those who, in disguise, pervert the rules; who use the rules upside down and inside out;

This fragment shows us who is behind the power relationships, that is, who has control and creates the rules that domesticate the bodies and mainly, who use these rules for personal interests. This way, we go back to the idea of institutions as the keepers of power, the ones

Power relationships have, on one side, someone who is dominant, and on the other side, someone who is dominated. This kind of essence was used by the Church to impose its values. According to Foucault ( 1990) , in the 18th century, society lived under powerful sexual repression; sex was reduced to mere reproduction, and the couple became the social model. Everything that is different from this standard became amoral and was banned,

In the same piece, Foucault (1990) says: "until the end of the 18th century, three great explicit codes - besides the regulations related to costumes and opinions - ruled sexual practices: canonical rights, Christian pastoral power and civil law." These codes were centered in matrimonial relationships and determined what was licit and illicit in conjugal duties. Sex of a married couple was oppressive, full of rules and recommendations. In confession, married couples had to tell the priests all details of their sexual intercourses. In the 18th century, a system of surveillance mechanisms was in place. These mechanisms were coercive and corrective, and had the power to repress and silence the bodies, and suppress latent desires. The Church aimed at domesticating sex and bodies, and invested in restrictions to words and everything that was connected to sexual issues, in a way that anything that dealt with

Foucault ( 1990) proposed the study of what was in the margins of society: child sexuality, madness, criminals, those who love the other sex, maniacs, that is, a set of illicit issues that were on the edges of the social system. Power relationships discussed by him aimed at showing the elements that were on the borders of central issues, that is, to show how the discourse of power is gagged by culture, how stereotypes are build and how they are outside the social order. At this moment, it is possible to see the real interest of those who

Freud, on his turn, developed a theory to explain the development of sexuality from the generation of the psychological subject. The organization of sexuality allows the subject to

person will be held socially or criminally accountable for his/her.

who put the rules against those who had imposed them" (Foucault, 1990).

who determine rules and punishments for breaking these rules.

the theme was denied and considered degenerated.

have a reductionist discourse on conducts considered wrong.

al., 2009).

denied and silenced (Ibidem).

attitude of those who practice sexual harassment. However, the existence of the law is no warranty that sexual harassment will not be part of crime statistics. Laws, without ethics, are useless.

The pillar that supports ethics is the perception of conflicts of psychological life. It is expected that individuals have resources to deal with his/her emotions in relation to reason, and that he/she may solve these conflicts coherently and with autonomy (ibidem). Cohen and Segre (2008) show the huge difference between moral and ethics: while moral has to be imposed, ethics should be grasped by the individual, it has to come from the inside.

According to Guirado (2010 ), intra and interinstitutional power relationships involve both agent-agent and agent-client relations. The power struggle shows, on one side, the one who sets the conduct norms, and on the other, the one who has to abide by it. However, the one who sets the norm also has to abide by it, he or she is not superior to the norm. Relationships established among peers, in other social scenarios different from hierarchical relationships at the workplace, may also be sexual harassment because when there is a breach of trust and the abuse of power.

Sexual conduct is not determined by a universal standard. Something that is acceptable for some is not for others. In some societies, exposing the body is acceptable and natural, while other societies demand the use of garments that cover the body as much as possible. Sexualrelated behaviors may change from time to time, as individuals live and feel things differently depending on their time and culture. Social practices are determined by society, and culture strongly influences the way people relate to each other.

Humans live their sexuality very differently from the other living beings. First, because sex is not limited to reproduction, and second, because there are some peculiarities, such as desire, passion, fantasies, sensations and guilt. However, we should not banalize sexuality and reject the possibility of reproduction, one of the objectives of couples at reproductive age. Those couples that having difficulties in conceiving may use the services offered by a countless number of assisted reproduction clinics.
