Brainwashing and Kidnap at a young age.

[Admin]

This is an interesting subject so we have given it a separate thread.   

[Eleanor]

I don't think Madeleine would totally forget, as such, only that her memory would be over whelmed by current events, especially if people were being kind to her.  Children are attracted to what is going on around them, and they need to interact.
I can remember very little that happened to me when I was three or four, other than major events like bombs falling and showing the dustbin men a doll's house that had been hidden as my christmas present.  And believe me, there were a lot of major events going on at that time.  I do remember being permanently hungry, and seeing a banana for the first time ever, but I was a bit older by the Banana Time.

The opposite scenario to people being kind to her is something that I have absolutely no desire to think of, and there is no reason why I or normal people would want to.  There is nothing to be done about it.  But I can well understand why Kate did.

[AnneGuedes]

So far I reckon there's no information about a possible brainwashing. We hardly remember events that occurred before we were 4. I personally remember one that I can situate in time (I was just 4). I think emotion has to be involved for us to remember and I intuitively think that involved emotion turns memories impossible to erase.
I'm aware Madeleine was a specially cherished child. I'm not suggesting she received more love than an average child, but she wasn't taken for granted. No, don't scream, please keep away the too famous issue !

[Lace]

I would imagine that Madeleine would remember the traumatic event of being abducted. 

The abductor/abductors must have told her things to keep her quiet,  such as 'we'll see mummy soon'   or 'mummy and daddy have had to go somewhere,  we are looking after you until they come back.    They could even have said something on the lines of 'there was a fire your family are dead'   who knows,   a child of four would believe whatever was told to them.

When it was obvious to her that she wasn't going home again,  then the story could have been.   'We are looking after you now,   you are our daughter'.

After six years Madeleine would now look on them as her parents and if she questioned anything she remembered then it would be brushed aside.

[AnneGuedes]

I would imagine that Madeleine would remember the traumatic event of being abducted. 

The abductor/abductors must have told her things to keep her quiet,  such as 'we'll see mummy soon'   or 'mummy and daddy have had to go somewhere,  we are looking after you until they come back.    They could even have said something on the lines of 'there was a fire your family are dead'   who knows,   a child of four would believe whatever was told to them.

When it was obvious to her that she wasn't going home again,  then the story could have been.   'We are looking after you now,   you are our daughter'.

After six years Madeleine would now look on them as her parents and if she questioned anything she remembered then it would be brushed aside.

A 4 years old believes only her parents, and that's fine it is so.
Your scenario, Lace, supposes a kind "new family". Could Madeleine have been stolen by nice people ? Was the carrier a lonesome soul who needed to worship a child of his own ?

[debunker]

I would imagine that Madeleine would remember the traumatic event of being abducted. 

The abductor/abductors must have told her things to keep her quiet,  such as 'we'll see mummy soon'   or 'mummy and daddy have had to go somewhere,  we are looking after you until they come back.    They could even have said something on the lines of 'there was a fire your family are dead'   who knows,   a child of four would believe whatever was told to them.

When it was obvious to her that she wasn't going home again,  then the story could have been.   'We are looking after you now,   you are our daughter'.

After six years Madeleine would now look on them as her parents and if she questioned anything she remembered then it would be brushed aside.

A 4 years old believes only her parents, and that's fine it is so.
Your scenario, Lace, supposes a kind "new family". Could Madeleine have been stolen by nice people ? Was the carrier a lonesome soul who needed to worship a child of his own ?

We do not know. We have no evidenceto positively exclude that.

[Lace]

AnneGuedes

My post was an example of how Madeleine could have been hood winked [don't know if I can call it brain washed] into believing an abducter/abducters.

Of course there is the other side to it and the people might not have been caring and kind,  but the same method could be used to quieten her and keep her controlled.

A lonesome person wanting to worship a child?     No,    I would say,     perhaps a couple replacing a child or couple who cannot have a child of their own.

A gang wanting to sell her?     

[Carana]

I would imagine that Madeleine would remember the traumatic event of being abducted. 

The abductor/abductors must have told her things to keep her quiet,  such as 'we'll see mummy soon'   or 'mummy and daddy have had to go somewhere,  we are looking after you until they come back.    They could even have said something on the lines of 'there was a fire your family are dead'   who knows,   a child of four would believe whatever was told to them.

When it was obvious to her that she wasn't going home again,  then the story could have been.   'We are looking after you now,   you are our daughter'.

After six years Madeleine would now look on them as her parents and if she questioned anything she remembered then it would be brushed aside.

Seems plausible to me.

I'm not sure if studies are readibly available on that.

[Eleanor]

If Madeleine was sedated by the abductor, which she almost certainly was, then she will simply have woken up in a different place and with a different person.  This won't necessarily have been  very traumatic, more confusing, I would think.  And a logical explanation would probably have kept her reasonably calm until she adjusted to the new circumstances.
That is what I hope.

[puglove]

If Madeleine was sedated by the abductor, which she almost certainly was, then she will simply have woken up in a different place and with a different person.  This won't necessarily have been  very traumatic, more confusing, I would think.  And a logical explanation would probably have kept her reasonably calm until she adjusted to the new circumstances.
That is what I hope.

Good grief.

[Redblossom]

So why would a loving childless couple kidnap a four year old and not a two year old?

[Eleanor]

If Madeleine was sedated by the abductor, which she almost certainly was, then she will simply have woken up in a different place and with a different person.  This won't necessarily have been  very traumatic, more confusing, I would think.  And a logical explanation would probably have kept her reasonably calm until she adjusted to the new circumstances.
That is what I hope.

Good grief.

I am much too well mannered to tell you what I think of your opinions.

[DCI]

If Madeleine was sedated by the abductor, which she almost certainly was, then she will simply have woken up in a different place and with a different person.  This won't necessarily have been  very traumatic, more confusing, I would think.  And a logical explanation would probably have kept her reasonably calm until she adjusted to the new circumstances.
That is what I hope.

Good grief.

I am much too well mannered to tell you what I think of your opinions.

[AnneGuedes]

AnneGuedes

My post was an example of how Madeleine could have been hood winked [don't know if I can call it brain washed] into believing an abducter/abducters.

Of course there is the other side to it and the people might not have been caring and kind,  but the same method could be used to quieten her and keep her controlled.

A lonesome person wanting to worship a child?     No,    I would say,     perhaps a couple replacing a child or couple who cannot have a child of their own.

A gang wanting to sell her?   

Except may be in the case of the carrier (after all the only person we "know") as caring (the way he was carrying her), certainly weird but not aggressive, I can't figure out people taking good care of her and loving her, whether they had her stolen for them or simply bought her. Ugly creatures !

[AnneGuedes]

So why would a loving childless couple kidnap a four year old and not a two year old?

Imagine they sent the carrier, a poor but delicate chap (he proved it the way he took her out of her bed), and he made a mistake. He took the one he found the most beautiful.