I found 14-year-old Carol's story very interesting. Her father is an officer who tries to discipline her in his way. But I am not sure what his discipline is regarding. She is a student, and she didn’t even hang out with her friends before her father abused her. As the author mentioned, the father wanted Carol to obey him strictly, and when she failed to obey him, he would punish her, forbade her from eating dinner, and lock her up in the room for several hours. I don’t know what kind of punishment this is. Morally, even prisoners should not be deprived of food. The method that Carol’s dad used to punish his daughter is unacceptable. Since she can’t share her problem with anyone, she cuts herself to cope with her feelings. This is one of the coping mechanisms that children use to manage their feelings. When the school social worker discovered Carol’s problem, she handled it very well by referring her to a specialist so she could go through further evaluation. However, I am confused by her psychiatrist's diagnosis, which is Carol’s diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. In my understanding, Carol’s problem occurred because of her father's bad behavior, and her problem manifested due to trauma. So, how could this be BPD? Except for cutting herself, isn’t this a normal reaction to the problem she faced?
The other thing I saw from Carol is that she was powerless as a child. However, as she gets older, she starts to defend herself, and she doesn’t even give him the honor of fatherhood; when he beats her, she beats him back. When children are small and abused by a grown, they have no means to defend themselves, but as they get older, they become very aggressive. Unfortunately, the ACEs she faced in childhood affected her as she got older. For instance, she was dating multiple boyfriends, smoking cigarettes, and staying outside all night. This is why children become rebellious when they grow up.