Jill Carroll, pt 2

Jill(l.), with twin sister Katie

You probably know that Jill Carroll of the Christian Science Monitor was released by her captors today. She spoke positively about them, stressing that they did not harm her.

from the Seattle Times:

Dr. David Wellish, a psychologist at the UCLA School of Medicine, said he had the impression Carroll was suffering from a psychological trauma known as Stockholm syndrome, a survival mechanism in which a hostage begins to empathize with his or her captors.

I wondered about that too, because I couldn't help but remember that she looked pretty distraught in the 2nd video the kidnappers released, the one in which they announced that they were extending the deadline for the prisoner release to Feb 26th.


via le Matin

What puzzles me is that while people are willing to accept that someone like Carroll might come to empathize with her captors, they have more difficulty accepting that an abducted child might not try to get away here in America. I can't remember the name, but there was a case very recently of a girl who was abducted and lived with her captor(and his parents!) for about ten years before casually escaping.