Elise Mask, mental health professional and researcher, unveils Ninou’s secret, breaking 30 years of denial and loyalty to reclaim her voice, in L’Aîné (Balland, 2026).  

Introduction: “The Eldest” (L’Aîné) is the story of an unspoken incest—the kind that remains hidden: sibling incest, abuse disguised as children’s games. It is the story of a tight-knit bourgeois family, seemingly above all suspicion.

It is the story of a memory suddenly emerging from its lethargy, awakened by another’s anger. It is the story of Ninou, breaking free from silence after thirty years of denial and unwavering loyalty. It is the story of a voice now unrestrained, stripped of false modesty, addressing the protagonists of yesterday and today.

The Eldest is a narrative. And it is mine.

This narrative was born from silence—a silence spanning several decades, woven from repression, denial, and survival. This is neither a theoretical text nor a clinical essay, but an intimate testimony, carried by a woman who is both a victim and a mental health professional. A psychologist, a researcher, and the author of numerous scientific publications, she steps forward here without her titles, without her markers. What she offers is her story—a descent into a fractured childhood, into the winding paths of a memory long locked away. The originality of this book lies precisely in this dual legitimacy: that of lived experience and that of professional insight. It speaks both to those who support victims in giving voice to their stories, and to those who are still searching for their own.

Christine Angot comes from a family background marked by linguistics and translation, and she herself has a demanding academic training. You are also a specialist in psychology. In your view, does this dual competence — mastery of language and clinical expertise — constitute a singular configuration for approaching the question of incest, or are there comparable precedents in intellectual or clinical history?

EM: I think it is important to start from the idea that each person is both singular and shaped by a plurality of experiences, roles, and identities. A traumatic experience, such as the one reported in L’aîné or that of Christine Angot to which you refer, never arises out of context: it is part of a developmental trajectory, shaped by family dynamics, but also by individual characteristics, such as a particular sensitivity. And it necessarily influences what comes afterward, including professional choices.

In my case, the choice of a caregiving profession, and more specifically of the psychic field, is inseparable from this history. There was an attempt at repair, almost a quest to “redeem” something. But that does not mean that this choice would be biased or illegitimate. The........

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