For all practical purposes, Helen had Stockholm Syndrome. She held for two weeks against her will and made completely dependent on her "captor". It saved her life of course. Annie's chances of reaching her any other way were slim to none, but I can't wondering how this situation would be handled now.
shareI'm sure time has changed the way that a similar situation is handled. I don't think Helen's situation was exactly the Stockholm Syndrome. "Generally speaking, Stockholm syndrome consists of "strong emotional ties that develop between two persons where one person intermittently harasses, beats, threatens, abuses, or intimidates the other."
Helen was not beaten or anything else by Anne Sulliven.
IMHO the movie made it clear that Annie's teaching methods were considered dicey and not soocially acceptable at the time, which is why Sullivan took the kid away from th ed family. She isolated this kid from her family and spent half the day wrestling her or returning bitchslaps, and the only reason she wasnt dismissed like any other abusive governess is that her methods actually worked!
Nowadays she'd have been arrested fir tgetting physical with a child, but nowadays there are valid teaching methods for such children. Which started with Annie Sullivan bitchslapping a little kid.