One of the most complex and elaborate characters in Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison is Bone. Throughout the story Bone has to live a life where she thinks that she is the leading mystery of the trouble being caused. She has numerous unhappy situations and is in no way self-satisfied with herself. She doesn’t appreciate who she is physically. She constantly thinks she is the most homely and dull person who causes the most inconvenience in the family.
This sense of selflessness is mainly due to the physical and sexual abuse brought upon by Daddy Glen, Bone’s stepfather. Unfortunately, the assaults were stretched out over a long period of time, leaving little chance for Bone to recover as an adult if any at all. I decided to take a more scientific approach to discussing Bone’s future as an adult. The most common disorders I feel Bone is likely to face are posttraumatic stress, cognitive distortions, emotional pain, and avoidance, an impaired sense of self and interpersonal difficulties.
After finishing some research I concluded that Bone would most likely be diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder. It entails enduring certain psychological symptoms that occur in reaction to a highly distressing, psychically disruptive event. A diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) requires the occurrence of a traumatic event, as well as frequent experiencing of the event through nightmares or intrusive thoughts, a numbing of general responsiveness to, or avoidance of, current events, and persistent symptoms of increased arousal, such as jumpiness, sleep disturbance, or poor concentration. All of these occurrences are a result from the sexual abuse Bone was forced to tolerate from Glen.
Triggers of flashbacks include sexual stimuli or interactions, abusive behavior by other adults, disclosure of one’s abuse experiences to others, and reading or seeing sexual or violent media depictions, all of which would more than likely be experienced throughout Bone’s adult life. Unfortunately all of these experiences are apart of life and in most cases can’t be avoided. Bone is obviously going to be exposed to such things, which could induce flashbacks.
Without question Bone would suffer from cognitive distortions. As a result from the traumatic events throughout her life with Glen her assumptions and self-perceptions typically reflect an overestimation of the amount of danger in the world and an underestimation of her self-efficacy and self-worth. Feelings of anger can become internalized as self-hatred and depression, or be externalized and result in abuse against others.
The development of a sense of self is thought to be one of the earliest developmental tasks of an infant and young child, typically unfolding in the context of early relationships. Bone’s maltreatment influenced her growing self-awareness interfering with her development of her sense of self. Without such an internal base, she may lack the ability to soothe or comfort herself adequately, leading to what appears to be overreactions to stress or painful effects. This impairment can also cause difficulties in separating herself from others.
Avoidant behavior among victims of sexual abuse may be understood as attempts to cope with the chronic trauma. Among the dysfunctional activities associated with avoidance of abuse-specific memories and feelings are dissociation, substance abuse and various tension-reducing activities. Unfortunately, although sometimes immediately effective in reducing distress, avoidance and self-destructive methods of coping with child abuse experiences may lead ultimately to higher levels of lower self-esteem and greater feelings of guilt and anger.
It has been observed that sexually abused children tend to be less socially competent, more aggressive, and more socially withdrawn than non-abused children. A specific interpersonal effect of sexual abuse among children is that of increased sexual behavior. This is prominent when we were introduced to Bone masturbating at such an early age. It’s known that sexually abused children are consistently reported to have more sexual behavior problems than non-abused children or children whose abuse was restricted to (nonsexual) physical or emotional maltreatment.
Although some kinds of sexual behaviors are quite common among non-abused children (for example, kissing, touching genitals manually), sexually abused children tend to engage in a greater number of sexual behaviors than their non-abused peers, many of which are developmentally talented and seemingly imitative of adult sexual activity. Such behavior not only may result in interpersonal rejection or stigmatization by the victim’s peer environment, but also may lead to social sanctions and punishments when it escalates into the victimization of other children.
As adults, survivors report a greater fear of both men and women. They are more likely to remain single and, once married, are more likely to divorce or separate from their spouses than are those without sexual abuse histories. Sexual abuse survivors typically report having fewer friends, less interpersonal trust, less satisfaction in their relationships, more maladaptive interpersonal patterns and greater discomfort, isolation, and interpersonal sensitivity.
It is said that adults victimized as children may see themselves as unworthy of relationships with people they consider good or healthy, and that some victims may attempt to gain mastery over the abuse experience by recreating it in the form of involvement in poor or abusive relationships. In this regard, sexual or physical re-victimization (that is, rape or spousal abuse) has been associated with prior child sexual abuse in a number of studies.
Adults who were sexually abused as children are particularly likely to report difficulties with sexual intimacy. Such problems may present as sexual dysfunction related to fears of vulnerability and re-victimization, as noted earlier, a tendency to be dependent upon or to over-idealize those with whom they form close relationships and also as previously noted, a history of multiple, superficial, or brief sexual relationships that quickly end as intimacy develops.
An end result that nobody would like to see happen is death by suicide or murder. Almost always thoughts of suicide drift in the mind of the person being abused. The adolescent takes his own life to end the pain, or intervenes to protect another family member from being abused. This results in harm or death of the adolescent or adolescent kills the abuser. Many children attempt suicide each year because they cant bear being abused any longer. Fortunately, Bone hasn’t reached that point yet. Depending on the circumstances ahead in the future, I see suicide as a last resort.
It is important to appreciate that these issues are very complex, and to be familiar with how abuse and neglect can affect various aspects of a person’s life. Child abuse does not affect every person the same. The extremity of the abuse and different situations determine the effect. Some people could live on to become great people and do great things. They don’t look at the abuse as something negative but rather as something that made them strong and made them believe that they were better and could do better than the situation that they were in. Dealing with abuse after it is over is the toughest thing to handle, most people that could afford therapy go to it, but since most people cant afford it they try to deal with it the best they can. Although in most cases the child is removed from the home that the abuse is happening in, sometimes child abuse can slip by unnoticed and that can have severe consequences on the child as well as others.
