VIENNA — Natascha Kampusch is a sad, withdrawn-looking young woman, a lifetime apart from the ruddy-cheeked 10-year-old she was when she disappeared eight years ago.
She weighs less than 100 pounds, and police who interviewed her shortly after she escaped from her kidnapper this week described her as having a pallor that comes from a lack of natural light.
Kampusch's reappearance brought joy to her parents, who gave a tearful interview on television, and has transfixed Austria, where sordid behavior rarely is on display. But it also has created a rising sense of sadness, as psychiatrists emphasize how hard it will be and how long it may take before she can feel at home again in the world.
"Of course the experience is a very severe psychological trauma, especially for a young person like Natascha," said professor Ernst Berger, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the University of Vienna. "There are two sides of the coin: On one hand the victim experiences suffering and pain because of the violence, but on the other hand, strong emotional bonding [to the kidnapper] is involved as well."
Kept in a cramped, windowless underground bedroom through the years when most girls run around with friends, chat on cellphones and begin to date boys, Kampusch was completely controlled by her kidnapper, isolated from interactions with other human beings.
According to police, she was schooled by her captor, an information specialist named Wolfgang Priklopil, 44, who committed suicide hours after her escape by leaping in front of a train.
Priklopil occasionally took her on walks in the neighborhood, but no one took note of the odd pair: a young, shy girl and the far older, clean-cut man. People keep to themselves in the area, a suburb of Vienna.
A policewoman, Sabine Freudenberger, who interviewed Kampusch shortly after her escape Wednesday, told the public broadcasting network ORF that when Kampusch was asked whether she had been sexually abused, "she said everything she has done she has done voluntarily; he didn't force her."
Freudenberger added, however, that she believed Kampusch had been abused and "is not aware of it."
Police halted their questioning of Kampusch, now 18, for the weekend to allow her to rest and spend time with her family. They are continuing to question her because her abduction is believed to have involved a second man, who has not been caught.
