As far as I can tell, Mackenzie Phillips was a Second Hand Addict before she ever became an addict. In other words she was living as a young woman 'at the effect' of the drug addiction or abuse of other people. And who knows from whence her father's alleged abuse and violations came. Certainly the drugs warping his brain must have played a role. And perhaps he was also a child victim himself- as incest is known to be passed down in families.
Personally as a student of ontology, I would like to read Mackenzie's book to see if I can glean how her mind went from victim to addict; from rape and incest victim to consenting adult.
It was probably not a far journey. For the human brain can only embrace so much pain, fear, or violation before it begins to compensate, through an often convoluted mental process. Take a course called the Landmark Forum and you can see exactly how human beings go from violation and abuse to what we, who have never experienced this particular pain, might call 'twisted' thinking.
So Mackenzie's mind journey might look something like this. 'I am being raped, violated, demoralized, and sullied by the very people whom trust. I have no power here. I am all alone. And I can't tell anyone.( As time goes by) This is all I know of the pleasures of sex. In some ways it feels good. But how do I stop the bad feelings, the feelings of wrong and violation?... Ahhh. Here's a way. I will say is not a violation at all. I will believe it is not what it is. In fact, I will believe that I want this. I will believe that I like this. In fact, the truth is, I do want this. I do like this. And it feels good.'
And so Mackenzie probably traveled from victim to consenting adult- except she never truly had any choice in the matter. At the age of 18, if her story is shown to be true, the 'choice' was forced on her by the very person she trusted the most. And in that swirling world of conflicting emotions, with no-one to trust and without even a fully developed brain, the die was cast for the future, as well as for the present.
So now where might this still under-developed brain take in Mackenzie in her early twenties and on? She can't speak about this. The whole world will see it as shameful, dirty, and disgusting. She has convinced herself that she wants it. Ergo, she must also be shameful dirty and disgusting. A level of self-loathing sets in. So now it is necessary to kill the self-loathing. Enter Mackenzie the drug addict. One might note that MacKenzie picked the most addictive and shame based, hidden-in-dark-alleys drug in which to drown her conflicting emotions.
I don't know Mackenzie's reasons for writing her story now- Whether she just wants money or fame or whatever else. And frankly, I don't care. With a life such as she has had forced upon her, who could ever be expected to be thinking clearly. If you want to condemn Mackenzie, you might do well to consider the saying "Walk a Mile in My Shoes."
And as for me personally, I can only thank Mackenzie for bringing into the open what so many victims would like to speak about. I thank her for giving incest and rape survivors permission to exist on the planet with the rest of us, in open-ness, without fear. And I assert that we the laymen have no idea of the 'shameful' crime we commit when we shame Mackenzie even more than she has already been shamed.
I can't truly tell you the inner workings of Mackenzie's mind through all of her ordeals. But I can tell you this... her mind and the way it works was profoundly affected by those young experiences. And I hope and believe that some day Mackenzie will learn that so far in the swirl of Second Hand Addiction, violation, rape, and finally her own addiction, there has never been true choice, nor any sign of freely-chosen consent. And in point of fact, it will probably be a journey of many years before Mackenzie can truly make the kind of free choice, separate and apart from her past, that we all make every day, and that we think is normal.
