Helping Elisabeth Fritzl

Top psychologist Anne Carpenter - a specialist in helping adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse

By Anne Carpenter Published 30 April 2008

The story of Elisabeth Fritzl, the 42 year old woman who was imprisoned in a cellar and raped by her father over a 24 year old period, is so shocking it is inconceivable to most of the public.

While this is clearly an extreme case of sadistic emotional and sexual abuse the need to treat victims of child abuse is unfortunately commonplace within the mental health field.

And, in the last 30 years, academics and clinicians have developed a greater understanding of the complicated psychology of abuse survivors.

Clearly this woman is likely to require extensive help and support to come to terms with her dreadful ordeal. However, those involved in her recovery will need to be cautious and sensitive particularly as she will have grown used to her emotional and physical needs being over-ridden by her abuser. In fact, she may be unable to articulate or even recognise them.

She will be feeling a range of conflicting and confusing emotions – shock, disorientation, anger, guilt, sadness as well as happiness and relief. It is likely that she will shift rapidly from one emotion to another in the early stages of resolution and as such, above all at this time will need gentle support from those caring for her.

Miss Fritzl will have to be gently encouraged to express her own needs and make her own decisions. Living in a cramped cellar away form normal social contacts will mean she has lost many basic life skills: meeting people, shopping, using a telephone, even crossing the road - all will be strange and daunting tasks.

Intensive psychological therapy is often inadvisable in the immediate aftermath of extreme trauma, particularly at a time of extensive police and media interest. Research on counselling in the immediate period after distress warns against probing into feelings too deeply and too quickly.

Any disclosure of abusive experiences can lead to the individual feeling that they are being abused all over again. People often describe traumatic “flashbacks”, where they feel as if they are being pulled back into the past and are being abused again. They may experience sounds, smells or sensations which can feel distressing; as if they are losing their minds. Such experiences are quite normal and are the mind’s ways of rationalising and understanding the incident. They are, however, very alarming.

Disclosure of such events is particularly difficult where someone is not used to being treated with respect. She may expect to be punished or blamed. Miss Fritzl may even anticipate repeat abuse from those looking after her as it is what she has been accustomed for most of her life. She will look to therapists to tell her what to do, where to go, what to eat, who to speak to. In other words; will have lost all initiative. This is why the preliminary stage of providing gentle support is so crucial in helping her resolve and understand her feelings. At this stage, all involved should be telling her they believe her and know this is not her fault.

Sexual abuse survivors commonly express feelings of extreme guilt: Guilt that they didn’t stop the abuse; guilt that they “let” it go on for so long; guilt that the abuser has been arrested. The public commonly ask “Why didn’t they stop it?” It is vital that such a question is not put so bluntly to Miss Frutzl.

Working with abuse survivors and sex offenders has helped clinicians understand the very complex relationships that exist between them. “Stockholm Syndrome” was identified in the 1970s and recognised that, where a victim is dependent on their abuser for their very survival, a curious, almost infantile, attachment can develop. The victim may hotly defend the perpetrator and even apportion much of the blame to themselves; particularly where they have been told by the abuser that they are to blame. Again, such attachment is normal and Miss Fritzl will need help to express such feelings. This will not be possible if she feels that she will be labelled as “mad” or complicit. No-one freely consents to such horrific abuse.

The final issue which she will face is in taking on her role as a mother to her six children. Children about whom she may have ambivalent feelings. Some were cared for by her parents; some may also have been abused; some were also the victims of the sadistic decision to imprison them in a cellar; all of them are active daily reminders of her unwanted incestuous relationship. The children will, of course, also need extensive support.

Miss Fritzl’s reintroduction to Austrian society will be long and traumatic. It may even be as traumatic as her first few months in captivity. She will need above all to be protected from the eyes of the world as she is helped to reconcile the very complicated and often conflicting emotions that she will experience.

From a world where she will have felt very alone, she will need to learn from her carers and therapists that, while her case may be extreme, child abuse is unfortunately not unique and her feelings will be very similar to those commonly expressed by our many abuse survivors.

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Tags: Sexual Violence & Rape Crisis

View the discussion thread.

294 comments

Thu, 2008-10-09 02:36 — kathryn2

It is my fervent hope that his time in prison is not agreeable to him, and that he may get a glimmer--although I'm quite sure it won't be more than a mere glimmer--of what being locked up might have been like for his children. Of course he has been in prison only since April, and in prison he is presumably not being sexually abused, so immediately there is no real comparison. Plus, he most certainly has a window in his cell, and access to fresh air and exercise. So he's much better off than Elisabeth and the children were. And yet he's growing thin and bald because of the stress and misery. Good, I say! Long may it continue.

Thu, 2008-08-28 11:43 — amiablehermit

Well, without getting into too much detail, I was/am, for much of my son's life, a single parent. LOL.

I can understand your "hermit" confusion, Speakeasy. I happen to know about and respect the desert fathers of the Early Church, though. I enjoy reading about their lives and emulating some of that.

What could I possibly say about your understanding of unconditional love? You need no validation from anyone about your understanding. I certainly have no diasagreement about it.

There is so much that we do not know about the Fritzls. Rosemarie is a big blank when it comes to information. I think many things are possible. But I have siad this before -- I don't think she is very smart -- at the very least she certainly did not display much intelligence when it came to her husband or her daughter.Whatever she may be innocent of, she is certainly in many ways, a dim bulb.

Sun, 2008-10-19 09:08 — amiablehermit

JF has been delcared sane and fit to stand trial.

We can put to rest the issue of his being crazy now. The court-appointed psychiatrist has diagnosed him as having a "severe personality disorder", but sane now and at the time he committed his atrocities. I think we can safely say that "severe personality disorder" is a clinical euphemism for Depravity.

Thu, 2008-06-05 10:46 — darraghjuel1229

Duyum - I read your post with interst, I have to say that I cant agree with your conclusions. Josef Fritzl is a classic narcissistic sociopath - the mental disorder of not feeling empathy with others, being unemotional and cold that helps to create a being like him is present in many people - 99.999999% of those people dont give in to it and dont inflict their "desires" on others. There is practically nothing to learn from josef fritzl - he is so bland and obvious all that needs to be known about him is already out in the open. Your post seems to suggest to me that you think he is a complicated character - no he isnt, he spent 30 years with one solitary goal in miond and that was to imprison his daughter and rape her - to use her as his personal sex slave. That he is obsessed by sex with children and young girls is not in question, that he is totally self obsessed and an egomaniac is also beyond question. What is so interesting about a pathetic, unpleasant, tyranical and in other ways ordinary man so interesting that we need to study him. He has probably always been a sad, obsessive creature who concentrated his whole being on pleasing himself -
the sheer enormity of what he did to his daughter - dont forget even after 5 weeks or more she still cant be interviewed by police about her "life" in the cellar - she must be so traumatised that reliving her ordeal might even kill her - if that happened does anyone think fritzl would be upset...
Im sorry but your comment that some people posting here that suggest fritzl suffer like he made others suffer are like him is clearly and quite obviously absurd on so many levels I cant be bothered to go into that comment any further.
can we all get this liberal nonsense out in the open - many people think nowdays that monsters like fritzl should be treated with sympathy and that he is a victim - I bet fritzl himself agress with that. fritzl doesnt deserve any understanding or excuses made for him - he is a human mutation of extreme proporsions - he is a weak, dull and pathetic old man who spent his life terrorising his children, his wife and grandchildren - he did that because he is inadequate in life dealing with people in an uncontrolled world so he took out his angst at being a nobody on his family, expecially Elisabeth.
all the understanding necessary about fritzl is that he is a bully who wanted to create a perverted paradise for himself - does anyone here really believe he would ever have let Elisabeth and her children free if kerstin hadnt become ill - oh by the way the reason he released her to go to hospital is so obvious Im surprised no-one has mentioned it. He took her to hospital because she was his main means of controlling Elisabeth and if he let her die Elisabeth would probably have killed herself or become totally unco-operative. In short, this "fantastic" man even in the end only took kerstin to hospital because he had no choice and not because he had any intention of looking after her - he only ever throughout his whole life thouhgt/thinks about his own weird and sick perverted needs. Dont even bother to try to understand him.
One last thought - myra hundlet the moors murderer, I wonder if yoou think she should have been helped to get a life together outside of prison. I remember speaking to a woman who was a prison officer "looking after" hindley. she told me about the "beautifull" gay marriage of 2 inmates where hindley was a bridegroom ! what a picture of a woman who procured children for rape, torture and death now being a bridegroom at a gay wedding in a prison....do gooders are ruining the society they live in by rewarding and comforting scum like hindley - and in this case fritzl who in life is a really nasty, weak, pathetic and pointless individual...

Sun, 2008-06-01 20:48 — darcygelding

GOD SAVE us from the DO gooders of this world, Nothing poor Elizebeth could possibly have done would deserve 24yrs of violent rape and incarceration by her pervert of a Father. Let alone giving birth the way she was forced to. You obviously believe that incest is OK and incest by force is fine?? Perhaps YOU should look outside the BOX>

Thu, 2008-10-09 06:19 — amiablehermit

Precisely. Just natural just desserts.

His trial is supposed to be in December. That is not far off, and it looks like the Austrian investigators have been thorough ~ they certanily have been back to the scene quite a bit. I wonder if Austria will get creative with charges and sentencing.

Hey -- do you notice that this site is now limiting the number of characters you are allowed to type? LOL! Maybe it decided we are a bunch of gas bags! ~Or~ maybe it is just I.....

Thu, 2008-05-01 16:25 — genecrabtree920

"While this case is horrific it does strike me as a story for middle class consumption allowing the feelings of horror and despair associated with this case to enter their own emotionally vacant lives."
What classist, stereotyping crap. Only a real brainless idiot could have such issues with such a huge and diverse chunk of the population.

Thu, 2008-09-04 19:14 — kathryn2

Well, so much for the hope of 'back to school' for Lisa, Monika and Alexander; today's report is that the children will continue to be educated at home after "international news media" (probably British and German tabloids) stormed the local schools, lying in wait. Poor kids.

Thu, 2008-10-09 07:30 — kathryn2

I had not noticed . . . because my longer
commentaries have been on our other site. But a
word limit prompts one to be frugal and concise... Not
such a bad idea, really. I guess we can just post--and
then post again to finish our thoughts! And we may
have to come back to posting here because the tribe
site is down so often, and increasingly full of errors.
And speaking of ELisabeth Fritzl, I think the media
silence, though frustrating for those of us who have
been so worried about her, is probably a good thing.
Perhaps by now she and her children have changed
their last name and moved out into the world...

Sat, 2008-05-03 19:29 — life is tough

Face it - sensationalism sells. When the story has been told, heard, disected and discussed and the papers made their margin, another torid, repulsive story will sell the papers. Middle class, upper crust, whoever......