ABSTRACT
This chapter was inspired by my therapeutic work with Alexa, a woman who had been held hostage for a year and a half. Throughout this time, she had been sexually abused and tortured. What was remarkable about the situation is that from an external observer’s viewpoint, she could have escaped at any time, despite the dangers this may have posed. But she was captive in her mind, not only to her abuser, but to an extremely masochistic way of relating to herself that had its roots in her childhood history.
