How to Rise Above Abuse (Counseling Through the Bible Series) (26 page)

(P
SALM
35:20).

E
MOTIONAL
B
RAINWASHING

—
Isolation:
Depriving you of all outside sources of emotional and social support

—
Interrogation:
Inducing exhaustion by keeping you up late, interrupting your sleep, causing sleep deprivation, or wearing you down physically or emotionally

—
Militization:
Enforcing excessive compliance with trivial demands

—
Falsification:
Withdrawing emotional support but later denying the withdrawal

—
Deception:
Intentionally failing to keep promises and agreements

—
Exploitation:
Using you or someone close to you for selfish interests or gain

The psalmist accurately presents what the victim of such treatment would experience:

“The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground;
he makes me dwell in darkness like those long dead.
So my spirit grows faint within me;
my heart within me is dismayed”

(P
SALM
143:3-4).

Besieged, Broken, and Brainwashed:
The Patty Hearst Story

Three words will forever be associated with the life of Patty Hearst: “Kidnapped Newspaper Heiress.”
⁶

On February 5, 1974, I remember this banner headline flashing across multiple newspapers and news magazines. Worldwide, stories detailed how this 19-year-old college student was gagged and whisked away from her apartment by a small band of domestic terrorists—the Symbionese Liberation Army, or SLA.
⁷

SLA militants perceived themselves as urban revolutionaries and
wanted to be viewed as “defenders of the people”—raucous rebels remembered for taking down the ruling class. One motive for kidnapping Patty was to use her in a prisoner exchange for two arrested SLA militants charged with murder. The other was to coerce Patty’s father, Randolph Hearst, to drain his “fattened bank accounts” to feed the state’s hungry.

The first two months of Patty’s kidnapping could only be described as
terrorizing:
days and nights filled with verbal, emotional, and physical abuse. She was confined to a closet, continually blindfolded, and repeatedly raped. To help keep the SLA in the media spotlight, she was forced to make scripted tape recordings to affirm she was still alive.

When several weeks passed without any communication from Patty, loved ones feared the worst. Then in April, the silence was broken—by a tape recording featuring a very different Patty. The heiress declared that she had turned rebel and she now wanted the world to identify her as “Tania.”

Patty explained that the SLA had given her two options: (1) be released, or (2) join the SLA to fight for the freedom of the oppressed. Patty chose the latter, with her decision sounding definite: “I have chosen to stay and fight.”
⁸

Patty’s aversion-turned-allegiance toward her SLA captors is symptomatic of those experiencing a phenomenon known as the Stockholm syndrome. The term was coined following a weeklong siege at a Swedish bank in 1973, during which two bank robbers took four hostages and the traumatized captives developed a close bond with their captors. Conditions were intolerable and inhumane, yet when police finally flushed out the robbery suspects, the four hostages encircled the robbers, trying to protect them from harm. One woman even claimed she was in love with one of the criminals and planned to marry him upon his release from prison.
⁹

Just weeks after joining the SLA, Tania fought her first battle, but it wasn’t for the purpose of stomping out social injustice. Donning a black beret and wielding a machine gun, Tania was caught on camera robbing a San Francisco bank, threatening to shoot anyone who got in the way. The photos taken by the bank’s security cameras sent shockwaves around the world: Was Patty a victim or a victimizer? Was she a forced—or free—accomplice?

Aware of the “brainwashing” buzz in the media, Patty released another recording: “My gun was loaded. At no time did my comrades intentionally point their guns at me. As for being brainwashed, the idea is ridiculous to the point of being beyond belief.”
¹⁰

The SLA moved its militants to a “safe house” in Los Angeles, but they weren’t safe for long. FBI and police discovered their hideout and, after a gun battle, the house burned to the ground, leaving behind six charred bodies. The world wondered: Did Patty die for a warped revolution? But an argument had prevented Patty and two of the SLA comrades from getting to the house, so the traumatized trio watched the entire shootout on television.

About ten months later, with new recruits, the SLA resumed “combat operations” and raided another bank to fund its “civil war” against the government. In this robbery, a shotgun blast killed a 42-year-old mother of four. Patty, waiting outside, drove the getaway car.
¹¹

Finally, on September 17, 1975, Patty was arrested—19 months after her kidnapping. The SLA disbanded, and Patty’s role as a revolutionary came to an end.

Patty was charged with bank robbery, and the most brilliant legal mind of the time—in an effort to get her acquitted—built her defense around the argument that she had been brainwashed. The attorney had Patty recant, in court, every word and deed committed by Tania, and Patty testified that after being raped repeatedly for months, her mind was no longer her own. “I couldn’t even think thoughts for myself anymore because I had been so programmed,” Patty stated.
¹²
“I had been…held in a closet for two months and…abused in all manner of ways. I was very good at doing what I was told.”
¹³

Sadly, the jury rejected the brainwashing defense and sentenced Patty to seven years in prison, of which she served nearly two years. The president of the United States commuted her sentence, and later she received a presidential pardon.

Sociologists and criminologists today understand far more about the mechanics of mind control than when Patty Hearst was tried. Experts now acknowledge that Patty was undoubtedly a victim of brainwashing—of verbal and emotional abuse, of manipulative mind control—who had attempted to explain, “I had no free will until I was separated from them.”
¹⁴

Realize that you don’t have to be a literal captive to succumb to the debilitating effects of brainwashing. Those subjected to incessant barrages of hostile attacks—about a person or an idea—become vulnerable to brainwashing, especially when the attackers are in positions of power. Within families, sometimes the victim is like a helpless bird who is mysteriously selected to be pecked to death by its nest-mates, leaving that member maimed and alienated.

Unlike Patty Hearst, most adults are not physically held captive, and therefore need to learn how to recognize and resist coercive persuasion. Likewise, we need to take steps to remove ourselves from the source of brainwashing attempts—and
stay away
until those efforts have ceased. Otherwise, when negativism is spewed, we can become poisoned by the toxic fumes.

Only after Patty Hearst became separated from her brainwashers could she see the truth so the truth could set her free. Similarly, if someone is trying to control your mind, you must separate yourself from that person and situation so you can
see the truth
. As Jesus said, when you know the truth, “the truth will set you free.”
¹⁵

Words possess immense power. Through words, God created the world (Genesis chapter 1). Through the Word made flesh (John 1:14), God saved the world. Words can be life-giving as well as life-threatening—life-giving by inspiring us to be all we were meant to be, and life-threatening by destroying our hopes and dashing our dreams. Ultimately, words move from being positive to being abusive when they hurt our hearts and harm our relationships. The Bible says,

“The tongue has the power of life and death”

(P
ROVERBS
18:21).

Words have the ability to build others up or to tear others down. Ephesians 4:29 says, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

“ ‘I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the L
ORD
,
‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and a future’ ”

(J
EREMIAH
29:11).

Abuse wears many faces—faces as varied as the people who give it or receive it. Abuse can be subtle or blatant, quiet or loud, smooth or abrasive. But with all its differences, abuse is always either verbal or nonverbal in delivery, and it always deeply impacts your personal and social life. As the psalmist said of an abuser:

“His speech is smooth as butter,
yet war is in his heart;
his words are more soothing than oil,
yet they are drawn swords”

(P
SALM
55:21).