When a young person’s universe is in turmoil—when things fall apart and the center cannot hold, to channel Yeats[*]—there are two working theories the child could adopt. One is that her little world is terribly awry and misshapen, her parents incapable or unwilling to love and care. In other words, she is unsafe. The other, which wins out virtually every time, is that she—the child—is flawed.
