Bastard Out Of Carolina

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