CIA-RDP96-00788R002100450003-8

Approved For BeIGAS fursday, January 22, 1981
e 2000/08/08 : CJA-RDP96-00788R002100450003-8
blional and Foreign Report
Hostages' Joy Over Freedom May Hide
Deeper Damage, Psychologists Warn
By Donia Mills
Washington-Star Staff Writer
,
An elated nation that watched the
American hostages' smiling, waving
flight to freedom should not turn
off its concern along with the tele-
.vision set, experts on the psychology.
of captivity warn ..
"They look so happy - that's the
sadness of it," says Charles Stenger,
director of services for American
Ex-Prisoners of War, an organiza-
tion of some 94,000. "They've sur-
vived, but it's left its mark.".
The big danger now for hostages,
families and public alike, said Sten-
ger, a 58-year-old Bethesda psychol-
ogist who was captured by Germans
.in the 1944 Battle of the Bulge, "is
in wanting to pretend it's all over,
it's all behind them.
"The thing to look out for now
is what we refer to as the 'second
Injury' - the damage that can result
later from the failure of people to
understand and respond to the resid- -
ual effects of the captive's exper-
ience."
Psychologists. agree that the
outward appearances of exuberance
expressed by the freed Americans
during their stopover in Algeria and
their arrival in Germany may belle
the deeper psychic damage suffered
during their 15 months of intern-
ment.
"All of them looked sad to me,"
said Staff Sgt. James Hughes, one
of 13 hostages freed soon after mili-
tants took over the U.S. Embassy.
"They had that sadness in their
eyes."
. Even in these brief televised
glimpses, the trained eyes of medical
authorities could detect subtler
symptoms of problems to come.
"I was struck by a remark made
by one of the Algerian pilots," one
psychologist said. "He described the
hostages as being 'like trained ani-
mals.' And indeed it did seem odd,
the way they did what they were
told, they didn't get out of line, how
totally docile and manageable they
were despite their joy."
Dr. Margaret Singer, a Berkeley,
Calif., psychologist who has done
extensive "de-programming" work
with POWs and cult victims, said
some of the hostages "looked awfully
geared down" - a psychological
term, she explained, used to describe
the way victims in life-threatening
situations deliberately reduce their
level of feeling in order to cope
with stress.
"I thought the young men, particu-
larly, looked more subdued than the
gray-bearded ones in their 40s and
50s," said Singer, who was a court-
appointed examiner of Patricia
Hearst during her trial on bank rob-
bery charges with members of the
Symbionese Liberation Army.
"I think a key fact here is that
the captors were males about the
same age as the younger captives,
which may have made them victims
of particularly sadistic treatment.
UP
STAFF SGT. JAMES HUGHES
Returnees looked sad, he says
They (the Iranians) were probably
doing a macho number on them,
and dealing badly with the women
as well, because of that whole
middle-Eastern attitude toward fe-
males."
Others suggested that the
seasoned veterans of diplomatic and
military service had more disci-
pline, stressful experience and in-
stitutional and family bonds to
bolster them than the younger cap-
tives.
"It helps you hang on to your sense
of self-esteem if you can find any
roles to make you feel worthwhile,"
said Stenger in recalling his own
captivity. "I was a medic - I was
busy all the time."
But despite the anticipated read-
justment period, authorities stress
that the professional training and
dedication of the hostages - most
of whom volunteered for the' post
with the understanding that risks
might be involved - will bring
them through the ordeal with better-
than-average results.
"These are 52 educated, well-
functioning, superior people,"
Singer pointed out. "They're going
to do a lot better than, say, 52 citizens
you picked up at random one day
out of the supermarket."
In their first phone calls to rel-
atives back in the U.S. yesterday,
some of the hostages made it clear
that they had been psychologically,
if not physically, abused by their
Iranian captors.
John Limbert told his father that
he spent nine months out of the 14
in solitary confinement, and others
complained of being isolated from
their colleagues, tied up at night,
denied even bathroom privileges
without asking permission, and hav-
ing mail heavily censored.
And the family of Malcolm Kalp
in Brockton, Mass., said they learned
today that the reason nobody back
home heard from him during the
444 days of captivity was that he
tried to escape several times and
was punished.
"He told us he was beaten by them
and placed in solitary confinement
because of his escape attempts," said
Kalp's sister-in-law, Linda Kalp. .
The returning hostages are on
"cloud nine" right now, warns Dr.
Edna J. Hunter, another California
psychologist who has done consid-
erable study on POW readjustment
problems.""But I do think after this
initial euphoria there are tremen-
dous readjustments to be made.
"It will take three or four weeks
before the letdown comes, although
I have a hunch that none of them
-- or their families - believe right
now that there will be any prob-
lems."
Stenger said that the combination
of extreme danger and total help-
lessness often leaves hostages with
a feeling of anxiety and vulnerabil-
ity similar to that of rape victims.
"When you go through a long pe-
riod of time totally at the mercy of
someone who is hostile or at best
indifferent to your existence and
when you can't do a damn thing to
protect yourself, it has a disastrous
effect," he said. "It's much worse
than being in combat, where at least
you can run, or pick up a gun and
shoot back."
Stenger, who also serves as Vet-
erans Administration coordinator
for POW affairs, said studies of 94,000
surviving American POWs shows
that the former, prisoners suffer
eight to 10 times the lingering anxi-
ety problems of normal combat vet-
erans.
. "This doesn't mean that they're
going to run around and act crazy,"
he added. "But such intense stress
over such a long period of time
manifests itself in unpredictable
ways at unpredictable times. When
you've lived for 15 months with the
gas pedal all the way to the floor.
it's certainly not going to do your
motor any good."
Dr. Demetrios A. Julius, chief of
psychiatric services at the Veterans
Administration Center in Rich-
mond, predicts the hostages will ex-
perience a surfacing of "real rage"
after the initial sense of euphoria
has passed.
"I think they'll feel a sense of
deep loss over a part of their lives
they can never regain," he said.
"When it sinks in that the agreement
specifies they can't file suits against
Iran, that they can never be com-
pensated even in this material way
for what they've suffered, I think
it will make some of them very, very
angry."
Julius, who served as a counselor
for Americans in Iran from 1977 un-
til his flight out in January 1979,
said that watching the plane land
in Algiers "brought it all back, that
sickly feeling of remembering how
threatened we felt, the taunts and
the pipe bombs, the fear of not get-
ting out in time.
"I hope we don't forget these peo-
ple six months down the road," he
added. "I think we've just seen the
ti' +f the iceburg."
Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00788R002100450003-8