Further, and perhaps more significantly, the emphathic bond may serve to nurture the daughter as well. In seeking to alleviate the distress of the abusive parent, with whom she identifies, the child may seek to alleviate her own suffering and in so doing rescue the violated self from the despair of victimization. This aspect of empathic bonding would suggest that incest informs both the inner and outer reality of the child’s life within the family, as she discovers her identity through observing and responding to the feelings of the perpetrator. In the cases described here, the violence experienced by the daughter is reflected in the pain and neediness expressed by the violator. This mirroring of reality is perhaps most poignantly illustrated in the account of sexual assault described earlier where at the very moment of violation the child witnesses her father’s grief even as he brutalizes her. As such traumatic conditioning occurs at crucial stages in the child’s development, the father’s emotional behavior and responses provide an interactive framework against which to assess her own feelings of terror, sadness, and betrayal. It is in the image of the father as suffering victim that the child sees her own reflection and thus his salvation becomes linked to her own needs for nurturance and help. Ultimately, the comfort she offers the abuser is the solace she wishes for herself. The empathic attachment between the victimized daughter and her father therefore becomes the emotional framework through which the identification with the perpetrator is established.