CONDITIONING, DECONDITIONING & RECONDITIONING: A STUDY OF RESILIENCE BUILDING AMONG SEX TRAFFICKING VICTIMS IN PATRICIA MCCORMICK'S 'SOLD'

Sex trafficking remains one of the most serious violations of human rights, with women and girls across the globe as victims, causing profound psychological trauma. While much research has focused on the physical and structural aspects of trafficking, there is little focus on the inner psychological resilience of victims through literary depiction. This paper, therefore, attempts to explore the psychological resilience in Patricia McCormick’s novel Sold (2006), represented through Lakshmi’s character. Focused on Linda Graham’s neurobiological model of inner resilience, the study takes into account the stages of conditioning, deconditioning, and reconditioning presented in her model. McCormick's dramatic presentation of Lakshmi’s mental evolution from helplessness to agency is analyzed in this study. Using the method of textual analysis, the novel is shown to foreground transitional stages of female victims of sex trafficking alongside changes in their attitude as key mechanisms of resilience. Supporting frameworks from trauma theory and post-traumatic growth, the psychological journey of Lakshmi is further contextualized. Highlighting literature’s capacity to humanize trauma and the survival of trafficking victims, this research contributes to the interdisciplinary discourse on gendered violence, resilience, and the transformative power of narrative. The analysis reveals that Lakshmi’s resilience is enacted by reconditioning her mind through trauma.