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WORLD  Time Magazine Equals Hare Krishna With Brainwashing FROM TIME MAGAZINE ONLINE USA, Mar 18 (VNN) — Was Elizabeth Smart brainwashed, as her father insists? Does she need to be deprogrammed like some runaway Moonie or Hare Krishna? Or is she simply a victim of the famous Stockholm syndrome, named for a 1973 Swedish bank robbery in which the hostages began to identify with their captors? The first step in helping this 15-year-old recover, say psychiatrists, is to recognize that snap diagnoses of brainwashing and programming aren't much help. "Terms like these don't have any real clinical definition," says Dr. David Fassler, a professor at the University of Vermont and a psychiatrist who works with traumatized kids. People have made much of the fact that Smart did not cry out in public or try to escape. But this doesn't mean she was brainwashed. She may have been threatened with harm if she made a peep and thus pursued an unconscious survival strategy of trying to win the goodwill of her captors. Such behavior might, from the outside, resemble affection or even love. Story URL Contact VNN about this story  Send this story to a friend
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