STRONG CW: Abuse, SA
She was kidnapped and locked in a closet for fifty-nine days. She was threatened with death, beaten, and repeatedly sexually assaulted (I could use a stronger term, but I think you get the idea). She was terrified of her captors and was trying to survive a horrible situation.
Wait wtf, really? I hadn't heard about this when reading about the case.
Yup, it's true. Shitty as google has become, the sources are easy to find on this.
If brainwashing tech was real, you think the Symbionese Liberation Army was the first to crack it and actually use it successfully?
IMO it's simple, we're talking about a girl raised in a bourgeois family who probably felt alienated and dehumanized enough by her environment that she snapped when offered a different path. Evidence that suggests she was brainwashed is mostly narrative-building from her (very good) legal defense trying to obscure the aforementioned personal transformation.
Also I've often asked here about cases of positive trajectories where someone who started out on the right switched sides; the fact that Patty Hearst as nothing more than a young scion who grew a conscience is treated as such an anomaly really goes to show that it is pretty rare for someone to switch sides like that, even moreso the more power someone has.
Idk about Patty Hearst, but trauma bonding is real, from personal relationships, to citizen- government relationships, military, fraternity/sorority, cults, etc.
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