Patty Hearst Story (last part)

From Patty Hearst to Tania: Shifting from one Personality Paradigm to Another

continued from 2nd to last part

But what may have solidified her identification with her captors was the fact that she witnessed them die when the police surrounded their safe-house and open-fired on them. By this time, Hearst became convinced that all the things they were telling her were true and that the cops now wanted to kill her. Patty then was already brainwashed.

Brainwashing, Stockholm Syndrome or defense mechanism -- the real reason for Patty Hearst’s personality transformation remains shrouded in mystery. Despite the many theories used to explain the incident, people could only be sure of one thing. Somewhere, at some point in time, something happened in Patty Hearst’s life -- and that molded her into the person that she was before and after her nightmare.


Related stories:

Patty Hearst Story (part 1)
Patty Hearst Story (part 2)
Patty Hearst Story (part 3)
Patty Hearst Story (part 4)
Patty Hearst Story (part 5)
Patty Hearst Story (part 6)
Patty Hearst Story (2nd to last part)


Trivia:

On April 3, 1974, Hearst announced on an audiotape that she had joined the SLA and assumed the name "Tania" (after the girlfriend of Che Guevera, a primary mover in the spread of socialism in Cuba and Argentina). sources:wikipedia.org & www.crimelibrary.com


References:





photo source: www.super70s.com
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Patty Hearst Story (2nd to last part)

From Patty Hearst to Tania: Shifting from one Personality Paradigm to Another

Photo of Hearst taken by the San Mateo County Sheriff following her arrest on bank robbery and gun charges in September 1975.





continued from part 6

In brainwashing, the person’s identity may shift from one to another. A happy and satisfied individual then may turn into someone filled with discontent and grievances. Because Patty was under duress and the situation she was in was distressing, her psychological makeup was susceptible to being altered. She was bombarded with the SLA’s dogma about how society was cruel and how the underprivileged suffered. In addition to this, her captors repeatedly attacked how being rich was a fault on her part. They also told her that her parents no longer cared for her as they no longer met the ransom demands and that the cops were not going to get her out of her current state. All of these were too much for Patty to handle particularly because her life prior to the incident was protected and safe. Hence, she yielded to the SLA’s brainwashing techniques. (last part)


Related stories:
Patty Hearst Story (part 1)
Patty Hearst Story (part 2)
Patty Hearst Story (part 3)
Patty Hearst Story (part 4)
Patty Hearst Story (part 5)
Patty Hearst Story (part 6)
Patty Hearst Story (last part)






photo source: www.law.umkc.edu
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Patty Hearst Story (part 6)

From Patty Hearst to Tania: Shifting from one Personality Paradigm to Another

On April 15, 1974, Hearst as Tania, was photographed wielding an M1 Carbine in the SLA robbery of the Hibernia Bank- Sunset District branch in San Francisco.









continued from part 5

In relation to the preceding statements, behavioral psychology would explain Hearst’s behavior in terms of learned helplessness. In this phenomenon, the individual gives up fighting for what she wants and becomes powerless. After having been subjected to traumatizing experiences such as being raped by the SLA and being blindfolded and kept in a closet throughout her ordeal, she may have felt as if there was no point in trying to fight. Furthermore, this feeling may have been increased by the standstill of the negotiation for her freedom when her parents withdrew from responding to the demands of the group after their initial response of giving free food in exchange for Patty was exploited by various people. The enhanced feeling of hopelessness turned her helpless and she allowed her captors to take control of her life. Unfortunately, this made Patty more vulnerable to being brainwashed. (to be continued...)



Related stories:
Patty Hearst Story (part 1)
Patty Hearst Story (part 2)
Patty Hearst Story (part 3)
Patty Hearst Story (part 4)
Patty Hearst Story (part 5)
Patty Hearst Story (2nd to last part)
Patty Hearst Story (last part)




photo source: wikipedia.org
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Patty Hearst Story (part 5)

From Patty Hearst to Tania: Shifting from one Personality Paradigm to Another

Patty Hearst joined the SLA and posed as Tania for this publicity photo. Behind her is the SLA's emblem of a seven-headed cobra.






continued from part 4

Initially, these thoughts were okay because they allowed her to stay alive, with the SLA realizing that she was starting to see things from their perspective. After all, they could now use her as a means to get the world to listen to them. Eventually though, her newly acquired perceptions evolved into an emotional bond with one of the SLA members. She may have started to feel that individual’s pain and fell in love with him. When this happened, she also made his principles as the center of her life and abandoned her real self and became a neo-revolutionist like her lover. Hence, even when she had the chance to escape from the SLA, Patty no longer sought for freedom. (to be continued...)






Related stories:
Patty Hearst Story (part 1)
Patty Hearst Story (part 2)
Patty Hearst Story (part 3)
Patty Hearst Story (part 4)
Patty Hearst Story (part 6)
Patty Hearst Story (2nd to last part)
Patty Hearst Story (last part)





photo source: www.leadpipeposters.com
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Patty Hearst Story (part 4)

From Patty Hearst to Tania: Shifting from one Personality Paradigm to Another

On February 4, 1974, Patty Hearst, then 19 years old, was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) from the Berkeley, California, apartment she shared with her fiancé Steven Weed.



continued from part 3

It is possible too that Hearst developed Stockholm Syndrome -- a coping mechanism that abused people employ in order to remain alive and avoid more pain. However, Stockholm Syndrome could actually become maladaptive when the person, due to the length of time spent with the abuser, could no longer move on with her own life. In Patty’s case, she may have formed a sense of loyalty to her captors after having been exposed to them for sometime. Her own physical and emotional pains were too much that she dissociated from these and instead focused on her kidnappers. She saw that they were human beings and like her, they have had painful experiences in their lives that made them the way they were. Somewhere in their hearts, they were wounded. They also had feelings. Therefore, they were not bad through and through. (to be continued...)


Related stories:
Patty Hearst Story (part 1)
Patty Hearst Story (part 2)
Patty Hearst Story (part 3)
Patty Hearst Story (part 5)
Patty Hearst Story (part 6)
Patty Hearst Story (2nd to last part)
Patty Hearst Story (last part)



photo source: images.google.com
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Patty Hearst Story (part 3)

From Patty Hearst to Tania: Shifting from one Personality Paradigm to Another

Patty Hearst and fiancé Steven Weed
before the kidnapping incident.



continued from part 2

On the other hand, her personality change could also be an unconscious result of reaction-formation, a defense mechanism wherein an individual acts opposite of how she really feels. Patty had a sheltered life before her abduction so she hated what happened to her and despised being kidnapped. But she could not face this fact so instead she embraced what happened and acted as if she was one with the SLA in their pursuit of their so-called purpose. The problem was that the defense mechanism became overwhelming that she could no longer disengage from it. (to be continued...)


Related stories:
Patty Hearst Story (part 1)
Patty Hearst Story (part 2)
Patty Hearst Story (part 4)
Patty Hearst Story (part 5)
Patty Hearst Story (part 6)
Patty Hearst Story (2nd to last part)
Patty Hearst Story (last part)



photo source: edition.cnn.com
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Patty Hearst Story (part 2)

From Patty Hearst to Tania: Shifting from one Personality Paradigm to Another

Young Patty Hearst before her kidnapping.



continued from part 1

Since discovering that Hearst robbed a bank, many speculated on the possible reasons of her sudden identity transformation. The American public could not understand how someone who belonged to a prominent family could rapidly turn cruel and heartless. There were hearsays claiming that Hearst was associated with the SLA even before her kidnapping. Some theorized that her falling in love with one of the members influenced the change. Still, there were also those who believed that she was brainwashed into accepting the SLA’s ideologies.

If there is truth in Hearst’s association with the SLA before her abduction then her behavior afterwards could then be explained as the revelation of her true self. If this is the case, then Patty would have already sympathized with the creed of the SLA and was already against the rich. But because she, herself, was loaded she felt guilty about her wealth. In order to combat her culpability, she compensated for it by joining the group. (to be continued...)


Related stories:
Patty Hearst Story (part 1)
Patty Hearst Story (part 3)
Patty Hearst Story (part 4)
Patty Hearst Story (part 5)
Patty Hearst Story (part 6)
Patty Hearst Story (2nd to last part)
Patty Hearst Story (last part)


photo source: www.trutv.com
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Patty Hearst Story (part 1)

From Patty Hearst to Tania:
Shifting from one Personality Paradigm to Another

The abduction of Patty Hearst in 1974 was no ordinary kidnap story. She was a Berkeley undergraduate and was the heiress of the Hearst publishing empire. But what made her case more extraordinary was the fact that after having been held for ransom by the Symbionese Liberation Army or SLA, Patty Hearst joined the neo-revolutionary group and became one of them. She denounced her parents, dismissed her fiancé, announced that she loathed the wealthy way of life and upheld the principles of those who kidnapped her, changed her name to Tania and became romantically involved with one of the members. Like the soldiers of the SLA, Hearst became a callous and angry revolutionist out to get the rich and avenge the underprivileged.

Along with some of the group’s members, an excited Hearst robbed San Francisco’s Hibernia Bank two months after she was held captive. After wounding two bystanders and taking over $ 10,000 with them, the group fled the scene. Later on, she was seen sitting alone in a van and waiting for two of her colleagues, Emily and Bill Harris, to come back from shoplifting. When authorities apprehended them, Patty cold-bloodedly fired a series of warning shots, screaming "let them go, you mother f*ckers or you’re all dead!" The three escaped with no injuries. For a year and a half, Hearst spent her life on the run until she was found in an apartment and arrested by the FBI. (to be continued...)


Related stories:
Patty Hearst Story (part 2)
Patty Hearst Story (part 3)
Patty Hearst Story (part 4)
Patty Hearst Story (part 5)
Patty Hearst Story (part 6)
Patty Hearst Story (2nd to last part)
Patty Hearst Story (last part)


photo source: wikipedia
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