Return to the Badlands by Liam Houlihan

Author:Liam Houlihan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Melbourne University Press
Published: 2012-03-28T16:00:00+00:00

Ties that bind

THERE is one sad postscript to all this, and it speaks volumes about Anne Hamilton-Byrne’s ongoing destructive power and about how even corrosive ties can bind. Sarah Hamilton-Byrne had been one of the most successful of the cult children at adjusting to the normal world. In the various police statements and materials on the cult she comes across as one of the smartest and strongest of the brainwashed, mistreated children.

Once out in the world, she had found her own path and was willing to front the media and face her own bizarre past. She tracked down her real mother and she had the guts to revisit her whole strange upbringing in her memoir. But there was no escaping all the trappings of her cult upbringing—the name on the spine of her book retained the double-barrel surname Anne had given her. But over time Sarah conquered even that vestige of her past. As Dr Sarah Moore she regained her confidence and took her life-saving medical expertise to India and across Asia as a volunteer. Hers was the perfect Cinderella story—except that such a brutal and surreal childhood is not so easily exorcised.

Psychiatrists call the phenomenon of hostages feeling empathy for their captors Stockholm syndrome. The phrase was coined after the bizarre conclusion to a bank-robbery-turned-siege in the Swedish capital in 1973. The robbers had held bank employees hostage for six days but when the siege was over the victims had become emotionally attached to their captors. Some, once freed, even tried to defend the robbers. Though bizarre, the syndrome is not uncommon: the FBI estimates nearly a third of hostages show evidence of it.

Still battling the demons of her past, Sarah, in pain and suffering bipolar disorder, began prescribing herself pethidine. She was caught and, in recent years, prosecuted for the offence. She lost one of her legs as a result of hospital mistreatment following a suicide attempt. And then, as if some unstoppable force could no longer be resisted, she renewed contact with Anne. ‘I do love Anne and my feelings are still mixed about her,’ Sarah admitted. ‘For many years I went nowhere near her or the cult. I was a prominent part of the public face of those that wanted to expose what happened to us children and to see justice done. But, despite perhaps appearances to the contrary, at that time I felt enormous loyalty to Anne.’ Sarah said she still believed Anne was responsible for mistreatment of children, but she said the cult leader blamed the aunties for any abuse. ‘That’s as far [as] she will go in acknowledging any wrongdoing. Otherwise she is unrepentant. She is a powerful and charismatic person, and I believe she initially meant well with both creating the cult and collecting us children. Both acts were in compensation and delusional repair for her own childhood.’ It was about the most generous assessment Anne could have been given—and from one of her most direct victims.

Lex de Man left the force

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.