Prisoners of Incest, DVD

This heart-wrenching documentary is actually a dramatized reconstruction of a therapy session that took place at London’s famous Great Ormond Street Hospital for children. In this re-creation, actors are among those who perform in an encounter session of the type pioneered at the hospital. A family of five is reacquainted with the father after a lapse of two and a half years to enter into a discussion of the incest that occurred between the man and his daughter. The team of psychologists who introduced this pioneering type of treatment play themselves. A BBC Production. (55 minutes)

Length: 55 minutes

ORDER CODE: BVL48777

ISBN: 9781622901678

Copyright date: ©1984

Closed Captioned

Contents
Introduction and Explanation (00:26)
In this film, hospital staff play themselves. Actors play the Carpenter family, based on typical incest victims at the Hospital for Sick Children

Richard Carpenter and Family (01:23)
Richard Carpenter, in prison for incest, is on a train on probation for the day to meet his family. His three teenage children, on another train, do not talk to each other about the incest.

Reason for Meeting (02:44)
A new form of therapy the hospital uses requires perpetrator Richard Carpenter and his family to talk about the incest. A psychiatrist talks to Carpenter to prepare him for the meeting.

Preparing Family for Meeting (02:47)
A psychiatrist talks prepares a family for their therapy meeting with the father, who committed incest. He explains that they are being videotaped for science.

Observations on Family (01:24)
Researchers watch a family discuss instances of incest and make observations on the family's responses and emotions.

Introduction to Family Members (02:06)
The psychiatrist who is treating a family for incest prompts family members to introduce themselves to him.

Shame and Avoiding Topic (02:09)
A mother explains that she did not tell her children their father was in prison for incest, not wanting them to have to cope with the fact.

Victim and Perpetrator Speak (03:12)
Incest victim Natalie declines the opportunity to talk to family members about what happened. The psychiatrist asks her counselor what Natalie had told her, and then presses the father to finish the story.

Observations on Mother-Victim Relationship (01:27)
As a psychiatrist presses incest victim Natalie's mother to ask Natalie for details, observing researchers note that neither reaches out to the other for comfort.

Conversation About Suicide Attempts (02:23)
The psychiatrist urges the mother of incest victim Natalie to ask her about her suicidal thoughts and actions. Natalie looks away as her mother asks. The perpetrator, her father, is greatly distressed.

Perpetrator Considers Victim's Suicidal Thoughts (01:19)
Asked about why he thought his daughter, with whom he committed incest, was suicidal, the father says he could not believe it when he was told. The father had been closer to Natalie than his other daughter.

Telling Mother about Incest (02:59)
Natalie's mother recalls that at age nine, Natalie told her that her father had "stuck a knife" in her. Natalie laughs uncomfortably as the conversation becomes more specific.

Analyzing Incest Victims Responses (01:01)
The mother's recollection of the father's anger when she talked to him about the incest prompts victim Natalie to laugh bitterly, similar to a cry. The observers comment on what her tense laugh means.

Father Talks About Incest (02:34)
The psychiatrist asks the father to talk about how he could have committed incest. He felt as if he wasn't there, he said. Afterward, the victim cried, and he tried to quiet her.

Continued Abuse (01:16)
The father talks about situations in which he committed incest.

Response to Resistance (01:49)
The father of incest victim Natalie recalls she became "irritable." Natalie says she told him to stop, and makes him reveal that he told her to stop being silly. He doesn't think he threatened her but is not sure.

Amanda and Mark (02:03)
Amanda, sister of incest victim Natalie remembers hearing whispering and her father acting guilty. She asked Natalie about it indirectly. Brother Mark hit someone at school for taunting him about his father.

Therapists Strategize (01:25)
During a break in an incest family therapy session, the psychiatrist talks to video-monitoring researchers. They suggest he bring victim's sister Amanda into the conversation more and make victim Natalie feel comfortable with her anger.

Family and Therapists during Break (02:11)
In a break in a therapy session, a family leave the father and his incest victim Natalie alone. Natalie asks him when he will be out of jail. Researchers advise the therapist to tap into Natalie's anger rather than her depression.

Amanda on Natalie's Feelings (01:50)
Amanda, sister of victim Natalie, thinks Natalie feels crossest and Mother feels saddest about the incest. Because Natalie acts cross when she actually does something wrong, Amanda concludes she thinks the incest was her fault.

Mother's Anger at Natalie (02:33)
Asked what makes her most upset about her husband's incest, the mother is most upset that they have lost everything. Victim Natalie laughs incredulously when her mother says she is angriest at Natalie herself.

Father and Mother (02:01)
The incestuous father thinks the mother is most angry at him over material difficulties his imprisonment caused. The psychiatrist tries to ask about the parents' sex life before the incest.

Asking Natalie About Feelings (02:40)
The psychiatrist suggests incest victim Natalie is holding in her anger to spare her parents. The mother's incredulity that the father could commit incest again leads the observers to speculate on why she blocks out realities.

Change in Family Relationships (02:20)
Incest victim Natalie has little to say to questions about her worries about her future sex life. Sister Amanda says she can't understand why her father did what he did.

Natalie on Impossibility of Change (01:03)
Natalie, victim of her father's incest, tells the psychotherapist at a family therapy session that her mother doesn't want anything to change, and people can't change who they are.

Father on Family Troubles (01:44)
In family therapy, an incestuous father suggests poor communication and lack of sex with his wife caused his actions, comparing his family to prison.

Family as Prison (01:26)
The psychotherapist at an therapy session on dealing with incest suggests this family is like a prison, but that more openness is possible. Victim Natalie doubts this.

Current Situation (01:10)
The narrator explains the current situation of a family in therapy to deal with incest, and of each family member.

Credits: Prisoners of Incest (00:42)
Credits: Prisoners of Incest