Here are ways the three women might have been psychologically held captive.

[nolabear]

On edit: People are assuming I don't take into account the physical restraint. Of course I am. I'm simply addressing the questions that have come up here about how they might have been tormented into a kind of mental captivity as well. It's real, and it happens. It could happen to anyone. I am NOT assuming I know what did happen.

Original post:

I know a little about how psychological abuse can affect the mind, and how horrifyingly inventive one bent on breaking a person's will can be. I have no idea what happened in that house but these are possibilities based on things done in the past:

First, having there be more than one of them gives the captor leverage. "You do this and I do this to her." The fear of causing harm to the only ones who understand what they are going through can be powerful.

"I will harm members of your family." It's a common ploy used on children, and these women were very very young.

It was reported that Carlos would pretend to leave and if any of the women gave any evidence of trying to get out or make contact he would viciously attack her, or them.

The little girl would have been a powerful inducement for Amanda to not take any chances.

Food and water and the most basic elements for living can be withheld to the point of near death. Then once restored, if done in a spirit of (false) kindness and caring the person doing the restoring can become a figure who is appreciated, bestowed with power, even if it is the same person.

Using them against one another. "If you tell me if she is trying to get away, you get fed. Or your child gets fed. Or today you don't get raped."

Bestowing "gifts" such as a rare moment outside (ten YEARS!) or time out of the chains can be an extraordinary inducement to cooperation. Access to medicine, a bed, a few minutes with the television or outside world, everything becomes a tool for maintaining power.

There are so many more ways to control a human being. Our love for one another and our need to survive can be used and perverted in some terrible ways. I am not nearly as impressed by their remaining hidden all those years as I am by Amanda Berry's outstanding, extraordinary courage in taking the chance she took to scream and fight and attract attention when she did.

Makes me sad and lifts me up all at once. I hope, unrealistically I know but I hope, those women never have another bad thing happen to them as long as they live, and are never, never made to feel ashamed by questions about what they did or didn't do.

[kestrel91316]

1. Those ropes and chains sure helped, too. But psychological enslavement

was undoubtedly a factor.

These women were IN NO WAY WHATSOEVER responsible for their captivity or its duration. We shouldn't even need to have this discussion.

[MindPilot]

6. I don't think the OP is blaming the victims.

I think they are just trying to share knowledge about how the mind works in these situations.

[kestrel91316]

25. I'm not unhappy with the OP. I AM unhappy with the many DUers who have asked

"why didn't they try to run away?" - like teenaged girls can just up and do that when held captive, or like women who have been held captive for years.........

The ONLY questions we should be asking are about what the man or men did.

[Blue_Tires]

44. Wow...Any DUer who said that has to just be stirring shit

[lunatica]

49. It can sound like an accusation when someone says

"Why didn't they run away?", but it can also be a very puzzled question because the person has never experience being psychologically terrorized.

I think the OP is wise to bring it up. It makes it understandable.

[nolabear]

14. I'm afraid the discussion is out there. I am completely in support of these women.

My post is intended to help those who are asking (on DU) why they didn't escape if they were left alone.

[wryter2000]

37. Lord, I hope I don't see any of those posts

I don't doubt for a minute some idiots are saying that.

[MindPilot]

2. I think they will be set for life. BUT...

I seriously hope the paparazzi wing of the the media will show some restraint, compassion, and not turn them into a freakshow.

[DURHAM D]

5. "set for life" ?????

[MindPilot]

7. Book deals and such.

They will probably be OK financially is what I mean.

[DURHAM D]

9. I am certain that is the least of their concerns.

Your post illustrates a complete empathy void. I am glad I don't know you irl.

[LanternWaste]

43. It's quite the contrast, yes?

It's quite the contrast, yes?

Mr. Ramsey, implicitly and directly involved, quickly dismisses talk of any reward, while yet others, mere spectators, talk expectantly of one.

[treestar]

53. Why an empathy void?

It is probably just fact, and a good thing.

They may have lawsuits, too, who knows.

They could not be blamed for selling their story. They're going to have major post traumatic stress problems and will need a lot of treatment for that, too.

[LittleBlue]

57. There's nothing wrong with what he said

It's simply a fact. The book deal(s) alone will set them up.

[Victoria E]

18. Complex trauma

My thoughts exactly. More like set for a lifetime of Complex PTSD.

[MattBaggins]

32. The sad reality is that the Lifetime Network will have a

made for tv movie out by six months tops.

[loyalsister]

40. The SVU script has probably been written

..

[okaawhatever]

3. Chances are he also turned the kid(s) against her. The girl said "I want my daddy" when they left.

Very often abusers will work some psyops on the kids and the kids will work against the abused and "tell" on them if they try to escape or communicate any plans. Chances are she's been told mommy is bad, mommy wants to hurt you, etc. sad, sad, sad

[Victor_c3]

36. The littlest of the kids is the one that I'm most concerned about

That is a messed up situation to have been born and raised into. Little kids are so pure and innocent and naturally loving. To have any portion of that tampered with or withheld from them is despicable.

[riverwalker]

41. Castro had a history of manipulation

he abused his wife and two children, nearly beat her to death. When she left with the children and remarried, he told the courts her new husband was sexually abusing the kids, even tho the kids said they were not.

[Puzzledtraveller]

4. I wonder if a form of stockholm syndrome ever played out too.

[LisaL]

8. If Amanda had Stockholm syndrome, she wouldn't be calling police saying she was kidnapped

by the suspect. People with Stockholm syndrome identify with their abusers and try to protect them.

[siligut]

10. Thank you for spelling it out

This can be difficult for people to understand.

[Quantess]

11. The young women were PHYSICALLY held captive.

Have you missed that part? They had made attempts to escape earlier! Someone called police when they saw a woman banging on a window for help, but when the police came, the house was quiet so they went away.

It is possible that the victims became attached to their abusers, but that is sort of beside the point when they were PHYSICALLY bound and not allowed to leave, regardless of whether they wanted to.

[LisaL]

13. Police deny they got any calls like that.

[robinlynne]

29. The police went there twice. called by neighbors..

once for having a naked woman run through the back yard. That may have been an escape attempt. don't know what the other was.

[Quantess]

39. What I got from news reports, there were at least 2 calls to police

A neighbor saw a woman on a leash on all fours in the backyard and called the police, but nothing happened according to the neighbor.

Someone else called police after seeing a woman banging on a window who looked like she was in trouble. The police arrived but the house was quiet, so they left.

[robinlynne]

50. from what I read today there were even more calls to the police. looks like the police did not

investigate.

[nolabear]

16. No, I understand that. You and I are on the same side. They were certainly doing all they could.

There have been a number of questions on the forum about how could they not have found a way to escape, and I'm just emphasizing that in addition to physical chains the psychological manipulations might have been such that they were in a state none of us can easily comprehend. I'm completely in support of them.

[Quantess]

20. Yes, and that is part of the abuse they have endured.

Now I understand your point.

They had psychological "chains" as well as physical restraints.
Who knows what that creep told them? I'm sure he told them all sorts of lies and maybe threatened he would harm their families... the poor young women were still very young and still of impressionable ages, so it's very possible they were brainwashed or at the very least psychologically abused.

[nolabear]

22. I went back and clarified a bit in the OP. Thanks for being a good editor.

[AtheistCrusader]

27. Some people watch too many die hard movies or something.

Everyone's billy badass in their mind until some filthy fuck has you tied up on the ground and a knife to your throat. Or a knife to someone else's throat to get your cooperation...

etc.

[nolabear]

31. Well, it helps us not to be afraid. The horror is that anyone can do what these men did.

I just can't fathom it.

[AtheistCrusader]

33. Exactly. Focusing on the victims and such is counter productive.

I want to know where these malignant tumors of humanity came from that held the victims captive.

[laundry_queen]

54. This. ^^^ nt

[cascadiance]

15. I wonder how they were able to live for over 10 years and never see a doctor...

One presumes that at times some of them had to have gotten some forms of illness over time.

And the little girl obviously has NEVER seen a doctor or medical facility in her life. I wonder how many problems she might have that have never been treated.

I wonder if these jerks even kept them from getting aspirin or cold medications if they got colds...

[LisaL]

17. Jaycee Dugard was held for 18 years and never saw a doctor during that time.

Neither did her two daughters.

[lapislzi]

21. I am sure that any terrible thing you can think of

short of murder or amputation, was committed on these women. I am sure that the types of psychological torture inflicted on them would make our torture-meisters wince.

I am sure that doctors have uncovered, or will uncover, a decade of physical trauma to go along with the psychological torture.

There are things that you and I cannot even imagine, and with good reason.

[Baitball Blogger]

19. Maybe you should send this to the FBI expert.

[nolabear]

23. Believe me, they know. This ain't their first rodeo, sadly.

But I imagine they each specifically have their areas of expertise and eventually, ideally, work together with the women to create a full and damning image of what they suffered.

[Baitball Blogger]

35. This one must be dancing to the tune of a different drummer.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2811622

[nolabear]

45. Indeed. Unprofessional IMO.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

24. The tactics are well known...

Including soundproofing so screams don't matter.

We will hear more as details are revealed.

There is a fourth woman who is still missing. One tactic is to make an example.

[robinlynne]

30. and a report of another child as well.

[AtheistCrusader]

26. After ten years of captivity...

Just trying to get the neighbors attention, yelling, anything, displays a staggering level of courage that I have never in my life been called upon to meet.

There are few words that can express any of it...

[nolabear]

28. Amen to that. I can't help but wonder if I'd have made it.

Such strong women. I don't even want to grace their captors with the name "men".

[heaven05]

34. I

just hope they will heal and find peace.

[backscatter712]

38. The Castros should be hung, drawn, and quartered for their crimes.

Seriously. Get a blowtorch and a pair of pliers, and get medieval on their asses. They earned it.

[jtuck004]

42. I find it ironic that people could question how these women could be held in this manner

in this country.

We have 310 million people acting like sharecroppers, being held hostage by perhaps 2 million wealthy people and the politicians they purchase, afraid to just stop supporting them maybe because they are afraid of the alternatives, of walking without being told where and how to walk.

It shouldn't be that hard to understand.

[marions ghost]

47. You have a point...

there is a connection --submission is easier than fighting, for the serially abused.

[TeamPooka]

46. great post nolabear!

[nolabear]

48. Thanks, though I'm considering self deleting.

I didn't intend to light a wildfire and forgot how worrisome extrapolations can become. I think we're in the beginning stages of a whole lot of public figures saying a whole lot of speculative things.

[TeamPooka]

52. when the actual charges and story get out people will realize how close you are to the truth here

[truegrit44]

55. Please don't do that!

Your post has been the most enlightening one of this whole hellish mess.........I so totally agree with you coming from someone who was controlled myself by fear for a few years (nothing as bad as this, but I relate).

All anyone has to consider is the word "fear" it has literally changed history and is stronger than any walls, chains or prison cell..................

Those that are saying these things need to put themselves in the girls position really, really try to feel what they were going thru, try to self induce fear and maybe for an instant they can get that feeling of helplessness, entrapment and the fear that goes with that.

[tridim]

51. Drugs? It's probably not hard to control someone who is addicted to crack or heroin.

[truegrit44]

56. Where did you get that from?

I would really doubt that this guy had enough money to keep these girls on a drug like that for 10 years! Plus I just don't for a moment believe this to have any truth to it.........