snipped for space
a quote from Shana Alexander's book about the Patty Hearst kidnapping and criminal trial: Anyone's Daughter, 1980 paperback edition, page 527. it has never left my mind
Child psychologists recently have identified a mysterious new category of people whom they call "invulnerable children." The mystery the doctors set out to answer is why some kids simply do not break down, despite the most stressful, deranged, impoverished, bereaved, punishing, and catastrophic of childhoods. "These splendid children," one doctor writes, "have this extraordinary equanimity." He illustrates his point by telling a story about three dolls, each one hit by a hammer. One doll is glass, one is plastic, and one is steel. The first shatters, the second is scarred, but the third gives off "a fine, metallic sound. It's that sound that we're all trying to investigate," the doctor says. Patricia Hearst, too, has been hit by a hammer. Yet with her, one still hears no sound at all.
