Kathryn answers “What was missing in Vanessa's childhood...”

A Goodreads user asked this question about My Dark Vanessa:

What was missing in Vanessa's childhood that made her such easy pickings? I kept waiting for some psychological explanation from her therapist. Vanessa was an only child and, except for a mother who was annoyingly intrusive and sometimes critical, there was no abuse, nothing to make her crave such intense "adoration," no explanation for her being so easily manipulated.

Kathryn Nothing was wrong with her childhood or upbringing. Most young teenage girls want attention and adoration from people outside their families. It's com…moreNothing was wrong with her childhood or upbringing. Most young teenage girls want attention and adoration from people outside their families. It's common for girls that age to form crushes on older teachers. Most of my friends and I when that age did. But these crushes did not really involve sex because, other then the mechanics, we didn't know all that sex involved. With girls, sex is inextricably tied up with all kinds of emotions they do not yet know how to process or understand. Eventually, we grew up and formed real relationships with people closer to our ages and with similar experiences.

Obviously, not all young teenage girls are as naive as I and my friends were. Many are sexually abused as children and that colors all of their relationships going forward. Or their parents allowed them to become sexualized at too young an age. These things did not apply to Vanessa.I

I also think Vanessa was probably not ready for actual sex from the beginning. She knew practically nothing about it. She wanted the adoration because it validated her attractiveness, her clothing, her intelligence, her literary aspirations, etc. Jacob knew what buttons to push because he was not just an older man and her teacher but a dyed in the wool pedophile. Vanessa never enjoyed the actual sex with Jacob. She was in love with the idea of someone loving her.

I don't think this could happen to just any young teenage girl, at least not to the extent that it happened to Vanessa but maybe I'm too far away from those years now. Ultimately, Vanessa became, or always was, seriously psychologically disturbed. Yes, Jacob greatly contributed to that but she never grew beyond how she was at 14 or 15. That's her greatest tragedy.(less)

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Sania Khan what you think is the cause of the sexual development of a pedophile in Jacob strane? sexual aberration? as in Lolita, Humberts premature sexual affai ...more
Apr 04, 2021 07:45AM · flag

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