Jaycee Dugard's Alter Ego's Victim Thinking#
by Melody Brooke, MA, Conflict Coach, Motivational Speaker
Jaycee Dugard's captors face 29 charges. Jaycee faces a lifetime of sorting through the horrors of her captivity. Apparently the Garrido's referred to Jaycee as "Alyssa" and never let her out of their sight. Jaycee had one child at 14, and another at 18, a result of two out of undoubtedly hundreds of rapes. She lived with this man as her captor, but also experienced him as her primary adult companion for 18 years. In order to survive living with this man, her brain kicked into a series of survival instincts. One of which was to develop a kind of bond with the very man responsible for her imprisonment. To do this, and to accomplish it thoroughly enough for her captor to not just kill her, and for Jaycee to avoid losing her sanity, Jaycee most certainly had to adapt to her new identity as "Alyssa". As victims of this type of abuse, all of us will develop a certain type of victim thinking. She had to think of this man as one would a parent, a husband, or another significant caregiver in her life. He was, after all, all she had. Her attachment to him was an adaptive victim thinking that led to her surviving an ordeal she might not otherwise have survived. I hope her counselors, family, and others around her are aware of how this kind of victim thinking influences our behaviors and our personality. Not unlike Patty Hearst, Jaycee had to become "Alyssa" and bond with Garrido in order to survive the ordeal. But instead of brandishing guns as Patty Hearst did, she brandished religious literature. Jaycee became what her captors needed her to be in order to survive. So what now will become of "Alyssa"? Will Jaycee abandon her and berate her for having feelings for a man who was responsible for stealing 18 years (and more) of her life? Or will she be empathetic to the young girl who did what she had to do to survive? I can only hope that whoever is around Jaycee is wise enough to recognize the phenomena and help her through it.
Saturday, August 29, 2009 3:19:03 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00) #    Comments  | 
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