One can only guess what psychological trauma Elizabeth Smart has endured. The abducted teen from Salt Lake City returned home last week after nine months in captivity. Her family says she was perhaps brainwashed by the homeless couple that abducted her, Brian Mitchell and Wanda Barzee. Even when police questioned her in Salt Lake City last Wednesday, she said she was Mitchell's daughter.
Myrna Shure, professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, doesn't believe Smart was brainwashed. "If she were truly brainwashed, she would not want to see her family," Shure says. On the contrary, she may be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, in which the abductee becomes emotionally attached to her captors.
"We don't know whether she had genuinely bonded with them," states Shure. The next few days will likely answer this question. At the moment, Smart is being open and communicative, signs that she has coped well. “Whatever she did, she did it right because she is alive," adds Shure.
