Experts Look to Stockholm Syndrome on Why Girl Stayed
by Denise Grady (New York Times) March 17, 2003
As authorities continue to trace the movements during the last nine months of
Elizabeth Smart and the couple they have in custody for kidnapping her, it seems
clear that Elizabeth repeatedly had the chance to run away or ask for help but
did not try.
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Waitresses in a Salt Lake City, Utah, restaurant, a photographer who snapped her
picture at an outdoor party in that city, a man who lived near her and her
alleged abductors in San Diego - none of whom recognized Elizabeth at the time
because her face was covered by a veil - reported that she moved about freely
and could easily have escaped or asked for help. Even when the police stopped
her with her alleged abductors in Sandy, Utah, Elizabeth told them her name was
Augustine and identified the couple as her parents.
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Though Elizabeth's actions may seem puzzling, psychologists said, hostages often
behave as she did and may suffer from the Stockholm syndrome, in which they form
emotional bonds with their captors. (The syndrome takes its name from a 1973
bank robbery in Sweden during which hostages were held in a vault for six days.)
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"I'm not surprised at all that she ended up acting as she did," said James
Richardson, a professor of sociology and judicial studies at the University of
Nevada at Reno. "She'd been under horrendous conditions, kidnapped and held in
captivity. We still don't know the extent of the physical coercion. But imagine
a relatively sheltered 14-year-old, grabbed out of her room and subjected to
extreme psychological coercion. The psychological course in someone that young
is severe."
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Arthur Brand, a child psychologist in Boca Raton, Florida, said, "If she's in
fear of her life, she's going to follow orders."
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"The captor also becomes the nurturer," Brand said. "They're an abuser, but also
the only person who can take care of you and keep you alive. They have total
control and can really manipulate what you think or feel." In such situations,
particularly those involving extreme fear, Brand said: "You go through a
transformation. You're no longer the same person. You essentially have gone
through a personality change. The person who has captured you has literally
broken you down and reconstructed you. You don't even think about running away
at this point. You're fully integrated into this person's world. It's hard for
us to fathom. We've never been in this position."
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A person with powerful beliefs like Brian Mitchell, one of the accused of
kidnappers, could have a profound effect on a teenager, Brand said.
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Dr. Arthur Deikman, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of
California in San Francisco, said: "If there is fear involved, then you're under
a certain power to identify with the one you're afraid of, who may offer
friendship, companionship, purpose. That is seductive in itself. Also, if it's
reinforced by a perception of threat, it can be quite a strong influence." "The
parallel, of course, with the Patty Hearst situation comes to mind, though she
was older and it was somewhat different," Deikman said, referring to the 1974
kidnapping of the American publishing heiress. "There, too, you had someone who
could have left, at least during the latter stages. But the frame of reference
changes. The human brain is very adaptable. We have certain things that tell us
who we are, what we value, what our purpose is, who's good, who's bad. These are
general reference points, and they're built in so we don't have reconsider them
all the time. But that can change."
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Dr. Alan Manevitz, a psychiatrist and trauma expert at New York-Presbyterian
Hospital, said Elizabeth's experience must have been "frightening beyond
anyone's imagination."
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"There should be no guilt about any kind of response that people have in these
types of situations," he said. "The fact that she is alive and present today
means that she made the right choice."
previously at: http://www.iht.com/articles/89970.html