I am not saying that the victims understand what love is meant to be... I feel like I am a great example. I was "in love" when I was 15 and ended up becoming a victim of extreme abuse. Sometimes I refer to him as my "ex" other times I refer to him as my "captor". It is still confusing to me 12.5 years after I escaped, because yes, there was being raped, raped by others, physical abuse, torture etc, but there were also "good" memories. Stockholm syndrome is very real. The night I escaped it was live or die. And then, once I got to safety I actually sat down and PRAYED for HIM... People don't tend to understand the power dynamics unless they have been in something similar, but the only people whose stories I have encountered that made me feel like their were similarities were ones like Jaycee Duggard, Colleen Stan, Shawn Hornbeck... 12 years out and I can say I never really loved him, and that his love was twisted possessive and obsessive. I was told I was loved. I would associate being hit with being loved and so on.
Basically, in the case of Sherin or other abused kids and teens, I strongly feel that many of them, having no other reference to what love is, do feel loved because I was one of those teens for five years, there was absolutely bad every day, but every single day wasn't a bad day.
When I see the smiles and glimmer in Sherin and her OS's eyes, I feel like they really did feel happy and joyful and hopeful and even loved in that moment. Maybe they felt fear later in the day or not every day, but if it was ALWAYS fear it wouldn't be documented in glowing smiles...
JMO...
PS
Maybe it helps me to feel better thinking that Sherin wasn't adopted into anger and hate, and that there was a genuine bond and love between them, even though it may have been a twisted love... or maybe she knew love every single day and hadn't known fear since she left the orphanage, until the night her dad snapped and her life was ended. I want to believe they loved her, genuinely loved her, because if they adopted her without caring then a lot of people missed a lot of warning signs.