Religion Made Smart Vulnerable

The Associated Press, Wednesday, March 19, 2003
By CATHERINE S. BLAKE

The man accused of abducting Elizabeth Smart likely used their shared Mormon background to brainwash her, a psychologist said.

Their common religious reference points allowed his hold over her to become stronger, said Steven Alan Hassan, a cult expert and mental health professional.

"He knew the right words to say because he was a Mormon who was excommunicated and she was Mormon," Hassan said.

Elizabeth had several opportunities to escape during the last nine months. But mental health experts say her unwillingness to leave and denial of her identity when police first found her would be normal for someone who had been brainwashed.

Experts say it's difficult to speculate what lies ahead for the teenager because they don't know what happened to her during her ordeal.

But Hassan said that Brian David Mitchell, the fanatic accused of abducting her, likely started religious indoctrination from the very first moment.

"Waking up a 14-year-old and carrying her off by knifepoint is very disorienting and traumatic," he said. "The adaptive response is to conform and do whatever she was told to do."

Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee, were charged Tuesday with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and aggravated burglary. Elizabeth, now 15, was abducted from her bedroom at knifepoint June 5.

Hassan believes once Mitchell had Elizabeth he immediately began to drive home his belief system, laid out in a dense 27-page manifesto in which he declared himself a messenger of God and said God wanted followers to have multiple wives.

"He likely began saying in a very fanatical way that he was a prophet, and that she was meant to be his wife," he said.

She was likely given a new identity, complete with a new name - she was allegedly called "Augustine" - different garb and an itinerant lifestyle.

Throughout her captivity she may have spoken to no one but Mitchell and Barzee.

"Essentially this new pseudo identity of his wife began suppressing the old identity of Elizabeth Smart," Hassan said. "Brainwashing is a three step process: unfreezing the current identity, changing it and refreezing a new cult identity."

In her new identity, Elizabeth wouldn't have thought to ask for help, said Carrie Andreson, 21, who spent a year and a half with a religious cult that starved her, made her stand outside in the dark for hours and beat her.

Andreson, from Massachusetts, has been a patient of Hassan's.

"I wouldn't have thought of leaving because even thoughts are exposed and you'll be punished for the thoughts. And you don't want to disappoint God."

Andreson said.

Elizabeth's conversion from a suburban teenager to a veiled follower of a religious fanatic was probably aided by the presence of Barzee, who was a submissive role model for Elizabeth.

Hassan said when things calm down and Elizabeth's no longer basking in the feel of her own clothes and the taste of home-cooked food, she may long for the person known as "Augustine."

"There is a nine-month-old formed identity that is indoctrinated with this man's belief," Hassan said. "I think 'Augustine' will miss him and she may feel some anxiety and panic over that."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51683-2003Mar19.html

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