41 of 100 DOCUMENTS

The Boston Herald

March 23, 2003 Sunday ALL EDITIONS

OP-ED; AS YOU WERE SAYING . . . Smart's odd behavior was act of normal teen in bad situation

BYLINE: By Jack Levin

SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. 030

LENGTH: 602 words

People are asking the inevitable question about Elizabeth Smart's
abduction: Why in the world did the 15-year-old girl from Salt
Lake City not attempt to flee her kidnappers when she had the
opportunity to do so? What made her use biblical language and give
a false name - Augustine Marshall - to the police who finally
rescued her from her abductors? Is it possible that she went along
voluntarily? In my view, such questions only lead us to blame the
victim.

Anything is possible, of course. And every year, some 100,000
missing youngsters turn out to be runaways. But Smart obviously
left her home under duress. She was taken at knife point, snatched
away in the middle of the night from her own bed by Brian David
Mitchell, a drifter whose appearance would have been as comforting
as that of Freddie Krueger from the slasher films.

After months of living with her captors - the self-styled prophet
and his wife - in a tent and being forcibly isolated from any
other influences, Smart apparently began to identify with her
abductors. The reality of their total control over her life was
gradually transformed into an illusion of control that almost any
healthy and decent 14-year-old girl would have come to accept.

At first, she probably complied out of fear in order to survive.
But it appears that she eventually succumbed psychologically.
Teenagers are notoriously malleable and easy to manipulate. They
make excellent subjects for stage hypnotists; they are often
attracted by the recruiting efforts of dangerous and bizarre
cults. In a sense, Elizabeth Smart was the perfect victim.

Decades ago, 19-year-old Patti Hearst was vilified after being
abducted by members of the Symbionese Liberation Front who kept
her in a closet for long periods of time and made her completely
dependent on them. She was certainly tortured and perhaps sexually
assaulted. Yet, after collaborating with her kidnappers to rob a
bank, Hearst served almost two years behind bars. Not only was she
found guilty in a court of law, but she also looked guilty in the
court of public opinion.

The point is that the average person saw Patti Hearst more as a
villain than a victim. If only they could have understood her as a
prisoner of war, she might have gotten more sympathy.

Actually, studies of prisoners of war who collaborated with the
enemy suggest that mind control can be achieved by exerting
absolute power and control over a prisoner's day-to-day
experiences, establishing a bond between the prisoner and his
captors, and showing the inmate that his only road to salvation is
to comply with the enemy's demands.

Cultists have employed the same psychological methods of torture
in persuading their members to commit mass murder or suicide,
kidnap children, or amass an arsenal of weapons of destruction.
The Order of the Solar Temple, the Branch Davidians, Jonestown and
Heaven's Gate come immediately to mind.

Call the influence of Elizabeth Smart's captors what you want -
the Stockholm Syndrome, brainwashing, mind control, or thought
reform. It all adds up to the same thing: Abnormal situations can
make a normal person do crazy things!

Jack Levin is director of the Brudnick Center on Violence and
Conflict at Northeastern University. As You Were Saying is a
regular feature of the Boston Herald. We invite our readers to
contribute pieces of no more than 600 words. Mail contributions to
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LOAD-DATE: March 23, 2003

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH