Exploring The Shift
The shift is not a thing. It is the action of discovering Self.

Ms Kampusch had been shielded from the public since her escape from being held capture for eight years (after having been kidnapped at the age of eleven). After bolting to freedom she was taken secret place to shield her from the intense media interest, so there were no pictures and only small bits of news and a lot of speculation.

I felt drawn to the case since the first day and followed most of the coverage on national and international agencies through Google News. There were many interviews with psychologists and experts and they all seemed to stress her weakness which struck me as odd because my own impression (call it a gut feeling) was, that despite the horrors which she must have lived through, she was in an okay state.

Those expert's opinions were particularly irritating when they referred to her as suffering from Stockholm Syndrome (blog post) just because she showed empathy about her captor's death and because she refused to talk bad about him now that he was dead.

However, due to intense public interest and also because she deemed some of things which were published about her in the media as wrong, it was announced last week that Ms. Kampusch had decided to go public and would give an interview to the Austrian state broadcaster ORF and the Austrian print magazine News on Wednesday. Most people in Austria and many around the word (me included) were looking forward to so see what this woman would look like and what she would have to say.

Wednesday came and during the afternoon I read parts of the print interview online and later watched the TV interview. (UPDATE: See the interview footage and transcripts in German and English here).

I was awed and impressed by both, to say the least. Later I went to ORF's online forum to see the reactions and to join the discussion.

I found that many participants shared the view that Natascha Kampusch had shown remarkable strength, intelligence and clarity. Sure, she had seemed nervous and often closed her eyes while she spoke or looked off camera for support, but she was far more composed than what I would have expected from an average teenager who appears on TV. Given her backfround and knowing that literally the whole world was watching, I think her apperance was more than adequate. There were critical voices on the forum, but the majority of people used the word respect over and over, together with expressing best wishes for the future. I joined the theme and I think the interview was well received by the public (in fact on Thursday I read that 95% of the Austrians who saw it thought that it was the right thing for her to do and that they thought that she was great).

But what puzzles me is how the public came out of the interivew with such a positive picture, while experts contined to express concerns over her general state when asked about their opinions on TV and in articles which were published the next day.

One person, an Austrian police psychologist is exemplary of those concerns, which – to me at least – seem miss the point alltogether. Mr. Gallwitz (SpiegelOnline) said that in his opinion her advisors and caretakers (a team of trauma specialists, a lawyer and a media consultant) should have detained her from doing the interview.

Now, please tell me if I'm wrong, but I'd say that this is toally off the mark. I am quite sure that the last thing which a person, who has lived in capture and unter intense control for eight years, wants from life, is to be told by others what to do and what not to do. I think Ms. Kampusch has been detained from enough things that she should now be allowed to do as she likes, even if it is considered an error by others.

There is anothe, more subtle indicator that those experts and some people are not taking her serious. Since her escape her advisors have been blamed for about everything she did or did not, like not seeing her parents too often or appearing on TV. None of those people said that she was wrong, but it's always been her advisors who influenced her in a bad way. Which of course means, that people think that it's not her who is making the decisions.

However, I think that I do not need to worry about this too much, because judging from what she tells in her interviews, she seems to have learned quite well to cope with outside demands under even the worst conditions, while at the same time maintaining a mental stability which left 95% of the audience amazed. There are a couple of answers which made me smile, especially the one where she was aksed about feeling overly patronized.

I am taking her serious. I am not sure where I took that from, but it was like that in the beinning, even without any solid news. I think you will find the same when you look at the her interviews. I worry not that she knows what she is doing and that she will be able to do what she thinks is right. I believe that this is a very sensible thing to do and that it matters not who will like it or not.

This young lady has been highly inspirational to me in many different ways and what I see in her reminds me of many topics and traits which we explore on this site and which I strive for personally.

Therefore I want to lend energy by presenting a view which paints a picture of Ms. Kampusch acting from her own point of power rather than acting as a victim.

I also wish to express my respect and appreciation for her strength and clarity.

All the best for her future.

Markus
 

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UPDATE 1: A little more expert bashing :-). Her is a link which highlights the difference between public opinion and experts in a quite hilarious way. It's from The Daily Mail in the UK. Judging from their cover stories and from the way in which they continually refer to Ms. Kampusch as the sex slave, I'd tag it as yellow press.

Yet, among the hundreths of articles which I have read about the case, this newspaper published one of the most insightful.

So insightful that I decided to leave the original title intact, despite the implied devaluation, because it outlines this odd contrast between origin and content: Austrian sex slave's 'astonishing' interview

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UPDATE 2: I just found another article which really made me rethink my view of the yellow press. How I hate it when I catch myself falling into the trap of those generalizations (like yellow press, general public, experts (duh!) …). Those guys over there are quite sensible, which in my view is unheard of a brit newspaper (duh! :-)).

Austrian sex slave pays last respects to captor

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UPDATE 3: Uhh, my preconceptions are really going downhill today. Another link from a brit newspaper of not exactly the best reputation. Mirror.co.uk had an article written by Sabine Dardenne who had been held capture by Marc Dutroux in Belgium about 10 years ago. The article was published before the interview and now looking back has been right on spot:
Captive Girl's Message of Hope to Natascha

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