Wolfgang Priklopil- wombtwin survivor?

On reading an article about Natascha Kampusch, it struck me that I may have some useful ideas about Wolfgang Priklopil. This story sounded oddly familiar.

The mystery of why Natascha Kampusch was held captive for more than eight years in a cellar owned by Wolfgang Priklopil will never be fully solved, since within hours of Natascha's dramatic escape on August 23d 2006, Priklopil threw himself under a train, was decapitated and died.

I believe the idea is worth exploring that Priklopil was a wombtwin survivor. In keeping a young girl close to him, in the cellar of his house, he may have been re-living his Dream of the Womb. Natasha could have been his lost twin, restored to him and held close in secret.

In my new anthology of wombtwin survivor stories, due to be published on 30th June 2008 under the title "A Silent Cry," survivors of an opposite-sex fraternal twin pregnancy have described how they have sought after their lost twin sibling in other opposite-sex relationships.

The "Dream of the Womb" is a jumbled and incoherent complex of vague pre-birth memories, which are re-enacted constantly until fully interpreted and understood. Wombtwin survivors can become over-dependent on their "surrogate twin" - be this a parent, friend, spouse, partner or indeed captive.

In the case of Priklopil and his captive, is there any evidence that this may be true? Is it possible that the eight-year drama, lived out in a tiny cellar, was a re-enactment of Priklopil's Dream of the Womb?

Firstly, they are remarkably alike, and despite the age difference, they could pass for fraternal twins.Secondly, Priklopil had a difficult but highly-dependent relationship with both his mother and Natascha. This paradoxical kind of relationship - " I hate you - don't leave me" - is common among wombtwin survivors.

Thirdly, he had no other women except Natasha and his mother in his life - this is a sign that the fantasy world in which he lived was more important than any adult sexual relationship. Once Natasha got to be an adult at 18, it all changed. Natasha herself has said that it seemed as if "her master" didn't not want to "leave the womb" and be adult himself.

But Natascha did want to leave: truly born again, she is now fully in the world and taking it by storm, by all accounts. The man who was once her " Master" (was he the Alpha twin to her Beta twin in their secret, shared fantasy world?) is now revealed for who he truly was: a weak, anxious perfectionist, totally dependent on his captive little girl, whom he abused terribly and yet could not live without.

If this is a correct interpretation, then in Priklopil's Dream of the womb is his tiny Beta female twin who did not manage to survive. In the womb, he - the larger, stronger Alpha twin - dominated over his little sister, took away her space, her oxygen and her nourishment until she just faded away and died. There are strong echoes here of a dark cellar in Austria.

Tragically, there is a strange kind of redemptive justice in the end of this tragic story, for he, who was once the dominant one, is now cast aside and dead, while she, the once-submissive captive, is now triumphant and very much alive.

References

Hayton A (Ed) "A silent cry: wombtwin survivors tell their stories", Wren Publications 2008 (to be published June 30th)

Boklage CE. (1995) "Frequency and survival probability of natural twin conceptions." In Keith LG, Papiernik E, Keith DM, Luke B (Eds.). "Multiple Pregnancy: Epidemiology, Gestation & Perinatal Outcome" (Parthenon Publishers, New York) pp. 41–50.