Law & Order * may trigger *

[Moriji]

Thanks to littlemama for helping me track down the episode of Law & Order where a psychiatrist talks about covert incest.

Season 2 Episode E1413
SECRETS (aka APARTMENT TO DIE FOR) 10/9pm 2/02/01

MURDERED TEACHER'S TABOO SEX LIFE PUTS VICTIM ON TRIAL - When a highly respected teacher is found raped and murdered, her high school students and fellow teachers mourn the loss of a gifted educator. But when Detectives Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni) find a nude picture of the woman in one of her student's homes, they have to question just what types of knowledge she was imparting to her students. As more is learned of the victim's voracious appetite for sex, the more difficulty A.D.A. Cabot (Stephanie March) has in gaining an indictment against a man who was just one of many of the dead woman's sexual partners. Dann Florek, Richard Belzer, and Ice-T also star.

www.nbc.com/Law_&_Order:_Special_Victims_Unit/episode_guide/34.html

[Moriji]

Hey, I just noticed that the SVU episode about covert incest is going to be on tomorrow night at 9pm on the USA Network. I'll be taping it. Hopefully, it's the right one. It's called Secrets.
www.usanetwork.com/series/svu/

[felinedependant]

This is my very first post.

Since watching that episode of Law & Order last night, a lightbulb went on over my head. I know I was sexually abused as a child (by an uncle), but I'd always wondered about my father as well. My problem was that I'd never had any memories other than, as others on these boards have described it, "icky" behavior. Bingo! Now I know.

I'm so happy to have found this place. And thank you to Law & Order for making that episode.

Monica

admin said:

Hey, I just noticed that the SVU episode about covert incest is going to be on tomorrow night at 9pm on the USA Network. I'll be taping it. Hopefully, it's the right one. It's called Secrets.
www.usanetwork.com/series/svu/

[Moriji]

I was so upset last night that I missed it. I set my VCR to tape it but it malfunctioned. My only hope now is that a friend's friend has it recorded on his TiVo. Otherwise, I'll have to wait God knows how long til they show it again. Grrrr....

[seayshore]

well, I don't know but I turned on the TV just so I could see it and there was an entirely different episode of Law and Order on...the programing must be different up here. Ugh.

[bek]

Thats what i saw!!!!!! the show wasnt really based on that until the very end and i am so glad it did

[vivian]

This episode was aired last night on a syndicated channel and it's what brought me here.

I had never heard of covert incest until last night. There wasn't a lot of talk about it on the show really and the description was brief. But suddenly my head was fuzzy and I had trouble breathing.

I slept badly last night, got up this morning and started doing some research.

I can't find any reference to my particular situation, but I'm sure there are others out there like me. My stepfather (came to us when I was 6) was the perpetrator, and he overtly abused me when I was much younger. I don't know exactly when it started but the last episode of physical incest was when I was 10, ending after I told my mother what was happening.

She stayed with him and he switched to covert incest instead. Lingerie, inappropriate conversations, jealousy, protectiveness, intimicy, and so many other things that I've read about. I remember so many inappropriate situations and events and have always felt so guilty about the emotions that arise at the memories. Now I know that he was still abusing me, just in a different way.

What a bastard.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Vivian

[seayshore]

Welcome to the group Vivian. Vent and ramble all you want to, you are among friends here.

[Moriji]

So I finally got a hold of this episode. I bought Law & Order: SVU Season 2, which is out on DVD. The episode is called "Secrets." Basically, this teacher was a sex addict and lived a double life where she would have sex with all these strangers she found on the Internet. Turns out one guy was a stalker and most likely killed her.

Anyway, I transcribed the scene where the psychologist explains covert incest to the two detectives present. Here it is:

Dr. Bennett Alston: It's called covert incest. You're a little girl, dad watches you take baths, tells you dirty jokes, mentions how great the sex was last night with some woman.

Detective Odafin Tutuola: Twisted way to teach the birds and the bees.

Alston: Then you hit puberty. Daddy dearest admires your shape, leaves porn magazines in your room, buys you sexy lingerie, maybe takes you as his date to a business dinner or a cocktail party.

Detective John Munch: And when the little girl is grown up, the only way she knows how to relate to men is through sex.

Tutuola: And Prozac helps?

Alston: Prozac is for depression. Sex addicts are consumed by loneliness and despair.

Munch: Addicts are self-centered people, doesn't sound like teacher of the year.

Alston: You don't understand, detective. If these people don't enjoy sex, they're numb, they're gripped by some force they can't control.

Tutuola: Find somebody who drinks too much, snorts cocaine, bets the house on the ponies--

Alston: And those addictions are considered disorders. Though when you have to have sex three times a day, you're considered a pervert. Sex addicts carry so much shame, they're always looking for redemption.

Munch: So Marty's dedication to her students was her redemption.

Alston: What surprises me is she was able to keep her secret for so long.

[Moriji]

A scene from the Law & Order: SVU episode where they talk about covert incest is now available on the website. Watch it here:

www.covertincest.org/content/videos