By developing a contaminated, stigmatized identity, the child victim takes the evil of the abuser into herself and thereby preserves her primary attachments to her parents. Because the inner sense of badness preserves a relationship, it is not readily given up even after the abuse has stopped; rather, it becomes a stable part of the child's personality structure.
Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror
abuse, attachment, betrayal, betrayal-trauma, child-abuse, complex-ptsd, identity, incest, parental-abuse, personality, personality-disorder, self-stigma, stigmatization, victims