What Is Stockholm Syndrome

What is Stockholm syndrome? He Stockholm syndrome It is a paradoxical psychological reaction on the part of a person who is a victim of kidnapping or held against their will. This psychological state is based on the development of a relationship of complicity and an emotional bond on the part of the victim towards the captor.

Stockholm syndrome, why is it called that?

This syndrome owes its name to events that took place in the city of Stockholm, Sweden, in August 1973. The event that occurred was Kreditbanken bank robbery with four hostages, from August 23 to 28.

Stockholm syndrome: history

The history of Stockholm syndrome dates back to 1973, when a group of criminals, whose leader was a man named Jan Erik Olsson, attempted to commit a bank robbery in the Swedish city of Stockholm. When trying to leave the bank, the gang found themselves cornered by the police, who had surrounded the building, so they decided take four people hostage bank employees. Olsson demanded from the police a large sum of money, a getaway car and that they hand over Clark Olofsson, considered one of the most dangerous criminals in Sweden, who was in prison at the time. Throughout the 130 hours that the kidnapping lasted, the people held hostage were threatened with his life on more than one occasion. However, when the police managed to enter the bank and release the detained people, they defended and tried to protect Olsson and the rest of the captors from the police authorities.

The feelings of attachment generated were so intense that they were reluctant to testify against their captors. They showed fear towards the authorities and a feeling of protection from their captors. On the other hand, they criticized the government for its lack of empathy to understand why Olsson and his gang had carried out the bank robbery. As a result of this event, psychiatrist Nils Bejerot coined the term “Stockholm syndrome” to refer to the attachment on the part of the victims to the people who kidnap or hold them.

Although this is the origin of Stockholm Syndrome, it was a year later when the event took place that expanded and popularized the term Stockholm syndrome worldwide. In February 1974, Patricia Hearst, granddaughter of magnate William Randolph Hearst, was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army. The kidnapping lasted a total of two months. However, once freed, Patricia joined the people who had kidnapped her to help them rob a bank.

Stockholm syndrome in reverse: Lima syndrome

Not only people who are victims of kidnapping can develop a bond with those who hold them against their will, as occurs in Stockholm Syndrome. There is another syndrome, Lima syndrome, by which The kidnapping person or persons establish an intense bond with the captive persons. Both are comparable psychological states, but the direction of attachment is opposite; In Stockholm syndrome it occurs from victims to captors and in Lima syndrome from captors to hostages. Therefore, Lima syndrome is the opposite of Stockholm syndrome.

Stockholm syndrome is not included in any of the two most used psychopathology classification systems, DSM and ICD, due to the lack of research on this syndrome. Some trauma experts include Stockholm syndrome in the DSM category of Complex Posttraumatic Stress, while others include it in the ICD category of Transient Disorders Triggered by Exceptionally Stressful Life Events.

We have seen what Stockholm syndrome is, but why does it occur? The development of this syndrome is also explained as an adaptive process and survival mechanism. Despite not being its own clinical entity and the lack of research and consensus about this syndrome, a series of symptoms that characterize it have been described:

• Development of a positive bond and emotional attachment by the victim towards the person who is holding her against her will.
• Sympathy develops towards the kidnappers, as well as towards their motives or goals, and negative feelings towards authority or police.
• In general, there is a alteration in thought patterns and cognitive, perceptual, attentional, and attribution patterns.
• Feeling of loss and lack of control about the circumstances, feelings of helplessness throughout the kidnapping.
• You can give yourself a cognitive identification process of the held person towards his or her captor unconsciously, as part of an automatic emotional response.
• Shifting of blame outwards. The identification process can lead the victim to consider those people that the kidnapper considers enemies as enemies.
• Dissociation states in which the victims come to deny and rationalize the violence on the part of the captor. There is an attention bias whereby the negative part of the captor is ignored and only the positive part is paid and maximized.
• A may occur idealization of the captor and their reasons.
• They maximize the acts of kindness from the aggressor it is a mechanism that helps generate hope in the person who is a victim.
• Victims can reach ignore your own needs and to praise and commit to those of their captors, becoming hypervigilant towards the needs of others.
• Cognitive modification so the victim does not perceive or identify herself as a victim.
• Development of symptoms emotional dependence towards the kidnapping person.
• Feelings of gratitude towards the kidnapper, also in those cases in which the victims have not suffered violence they may feel exaggeratedly grateful towards their kidnappers. Likewise, they may also show gratitude because they believe that the experience has provided them with personal growth and a modification in their value system.
• Positive feelings toward the captor can be maintained once the captivity is over.

Stockholm syndrome has been described in other situations where there are victims of abuse. One of these is the Stockholm syndrome in couples, also called domestic Stockholm syndrome. Domestic Stockholm syndrome is an extension of Stockholm syndrome and occurs in those people who are victims of physical and/or psychological abuse and mistreatment by their partners sentimental

In this case, there is already an intense emotional bond between the victim and the aggressor prior to the abusive situation. Furthermore, in the couple there is a dynamic of power asymmetry, so abuse is an act of claiming and perpetuating power. The victim person adapts to the situation of abuse through trauma survival mechanisms, resistance and coping with damage. These mechanisms include thought distortions such as minimization, denial and dissociation of the acts carried out by the aggressor.

Workplace Stockholm syndrome is another extension of Stockholm syndrome, but in this case the toxic relationship takes place between workers and managers of the company or the company itself. It is about the link and identification between an employee and a company in which the working conditions are exploitative, as well as the existing environment and relationships are hostile and disrespectful.

The person may remain in the company due to the unconscious justification of the working conditions, since they have internalized the working conditions and/or their self-esteem has deteriorated, fear of not finding another job, urgent need for employment or excessive identification with the company and its values, therefore, Despite the abusive situation, the person feels belonging to the business group.

Among the most famous cases of Stockholm syndrome are the following:

• Mary McElroy: This case dates back to 1933, prior to the existence of the term Stockholm syndrome, but it is a reflection of it. Mary was kidnapped by four men with the aim of asking for money for her ransom, since she was the daughter of a wealthy manager. She was freed by the kidnappers after receiving a large sum of money for her ransom. The police arrested the kidnappers, but Mary defended them at trial, claiming that they had been kind to her and that they had given him flowers from her. The kidnappers were imprisoned and Mary, feeling guilty about it, spent some time going to prison to visit them and give them gifts.
• Natascha Kampusch: a ten-year-old Australian girl who was kidnapped after school in a van. She was locked in a cell by her kidnapper for eight years, until one day, taking advantage of the carelessness of her aggressor, she managed to escape from her. Her attacker, upon realizing that her victim had escaped, committed suicide. Given this, Natascha felt very emotionally affected and even defended herself before the media. not having felt like a victim in his captivity.

Below we show you a list of films from different eras that address Stockholm syndrome. With these examples, you will be able to better understand what Stockholm syndrome is and observe its characteristics.

• Sweet Kidnapping (1975)
• Kidnapping (1976)
• The tobacconist of Vallecas (1987)
• Beauty and the Beast (1991)
• V for Vendetta (2005)
• In His Hands (2010)
• Perfect Obedience (2013)
• One after another (2014)
• Far from the sea (2015)
• Stockholm (2018)

This article is merely informative, at PsychologyFor we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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