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Azar Gat asserts that war and abductions (capture) were typical of human pre-history.<ref name="scribd"/> When [[Selection (biology)|selection]] is intense and persistent, adaptive traits (such as capture-bonding) become universal to the population or species.
Azar Gat asserts that war and abductions (capture) were typical of human pre-history.<ref name="scribd"/> When [[Selection (biology)|selection]] is intense and persistent, adaptive traits (such as capture-bonding) become universal to the population or species.


Partial activation of the capture-bonding psychological trait may lie behind [[battered person syndrome]],<ref>{{Self-published source|date=October 2016}}{{cite book|first=Libb|last=Thims|title=Human Chemistry (Volume Two)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KGaghraz8AUC|year=2007|authorlink=Libb Thims|publisher=Lulu.com|isbn=978-1-4303-2840-7|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=KGaghraz8AUC&pg=PA604&dq=%25captive–bonding%25+%25battered–wife+syndrome%25 604–605]}}</ref> military basic training, fraternity [[hazing]], and sex practices such as [[BDSM|sadism/masochism or bondage/discipline]].<ref name="hkhenson">{{cite journal|last=Henson |first=Keith |title=Evolutionary Psychology, Memes and the Origin of War |journal=Mankind Quarterly |date=Summer 2006 |volume=46 |issue=4 |url=http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2006/4/17/194059/296 |authorlink=Keith Henson |publisher=The Council for Social and Economic Studies |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://archive.is/FffZ?url=http://eugen.leitl.org/A-2000-tonne-per-day-Space-Elevator1.ppt |archivedate=December 9, 2012 |accessdate=May 15, 2017}}</ref> Being captured by neighbouring tribes was a relatively common event for women in human history, if anything like the recent history of the few remaining tribes. In some of those tribes ([[Yanomamo]], for instance), practically everyone in the tribe is descended from a captive within the last three generations. Perhaps as high as one in ten of females were abducted and incorporated into the tribe that captured them.<ref name="hkhenson"/>
Partial activation of the capture-bonding psychological trait may lie behind [[battered person syndrome]],<ref>{{Self-published source|date=October 2016}}{{cite book|first=Libb|last=Thims|title=Human Chemistry (Volume Two)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KGaghraz8AUC|year=2007|authorlink=Libb Thims|publisher=Lulu.com|isbn=978-1-4303-2840-7|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=KGaghraz8AUC&pg=PA604&dq=%25captive–bonding%25+%25battered–wife+syndrome%25 604–605]}}</ref> military basic training, fraternity [[hazing]], and sex practices such as [[BDSM|sadism/masochism or bondage/discipline]].<ref name="hkhenson">{{cite journal |last=Henson |first=Keith |title=Evolutionary Psychology, Memes and the Origin of War |journal=Mankind Quarterly |date=Summer 2006 |volume=46 |issue=4 |url=http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2006/4/17/194059/296 |authorlink=Keith Henson |publisher=The Council for Social and Economic Studies |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://archive.is/20121209044509/http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2006/4/17/194059/296 |archivedate=December 9, 2012 |accessdate=May 15, 2017 |df= }}</ref> Being captured by neighbouring tribes was a relatively common event for women in human history, if anything like the recent history of the few remaining tribes. In some of those tribes ([[Yanomamo]], for instance), practically everyone in the tribe is descended from a captive within the last three generations. Perhaps as high as one in ten of females were abducted and incorporated into the tribe that captured them.<ref name="hkhenson"/>


=== Recovery ===
=== Recovery ===

Revision as of 13:18, 6 December 2017

For other uses, see Stockholm syndrome (disambiguation).
The location where the 1973 Norrmalmstorg robbery took place in Stockholm, Sweden (2005).

Stockholm syndrome is a condition that causes hostages to develop a psychological alliance with their captors as a survival strategy during captivity.[1] These feelings, resulting from a bond formed between captor and captives during intimate time spent together, are generally considered irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims. 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."[2] The FBI's Hostage Barricade Database System shows that roughly eight percent of victims show evidence of Stockholm syndrome.[3]

It was formally named in 1973 when four hostages were taken during a bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden. The hostages defended their captors after being released and would not agree to testify in court against them.[4] Stockholm syndrome is ostensibly paradoxical because the sympathetic sentiments captives feel towards their captors are the opposite of the fear and disdain an onlooker may feel towards the captors.

There are four key components that generally lead to the development of Stockholm syndrome:

  • A hostage's development of positive feelings towards their captor
  • No previous hostage-captor relationship
  • A refusal by hostages to co-operate with police forces and other government authorities
  • A hostage's belief in the humanity of their captor, for the reason that when a victim holds the same values as the aggressor, they cease to be perceived as a threat.[2][3]

Stockholm syndrome is considered a "contested illness", due to many law enforcement officers' doubt about the legitimacy of the condition.[4]

History

Stockholm police asked him for assistance with analyzing the victims' reactions to the 1973 bank robbery and their status as hostages. As the idea of brainwashing was not a new concept, Bejerot, speaking on "a news cast after the captives' release" instinctively reduced the hostages' reactions to a result of being brainwashed by their captors.[4] He called it Norrmalmstorgssyndromet, meaning "The Norrmalmstorg Syndrome"; it later became known outside of Sweden as the Stockholm syndrome.[5] It was originally defined by psychiatrist Frank Ochberg to aid the management of hostage situations.[6]

Famous instances

Stockholm bank robbery

Main article: Norrmalmstorg robbery

In 1973, Jan-Erik Olsson, a convict on parole, took four employees of the bank (three women and one man) hostage during a failed bank robbery in Kreditbanken, one of the largest banks in Stockholm, Sweden. He negotiated the release from prison of his friend Clark Olofsson to assist him. They held the hostages captive for six days (August 23–28) in one of the bank’s vaults while torturing them with nooses and dynamite. When they were released, none of them would testify against either captor in court; instead they began raising money for their defense.[4]

Patty Hearst

Patty Hearst, the granddaughter of publisher William Randolph Hearst, was taken and held hostage by the Symbionese Liberation Army, "an urban guerilla group", in 1974. She was recorded denouncing her family as well as the police under her new name, "Tania", and was later seen working with the SLA to rob banks in San Francisco. She publicly asserted her sympathetic feelings towards the SLA and their pursuits as well. After her 1975 arrest, pleading Stockholm syndrome did not work as a proper defense in court, much to the chagrin of her defense lawyer, F. Lee Bailey. Her seven-year prison sentence was later commuted, and she was eventually presidentially pardoned by Bill Clinton, who was informed that she was not acting under her own free will.[4]

Lima syndrome

A similar form of Stockholm syndrome called Lima syndrome has been proposed, in which abductors develop sympathy for their hostages. There are many reasons why Lima syndrome can develop in abductors.[citation needed] Sometimes when there are multiple abductors, one or more of them will start to disagree with what they are doing and influence one another.[citation needed] An abductor may also have second thoughts or experience empathy towards their victims.

Lima syndrome was named after an abduction at the Japanese embassy in Lima, Peru, in 1996, when members of a militant movement took hostage hundreds of people attending a party at the official residence of Japan's ambassador. Within a few hours, the abductors had set free most of the hostages, including the most valuable ones, because of sympathy towards them.[7][8]

Symptoms and behaviours

Victims of the formal definition of Stockholm syndrome develop "positive feelings toward their captors and sympathy for their causes and goals, and negative feelings toward the police or authorities".[4] These symptoms often follow escaped victims back into their previously ordinary lives.

Coping mechanism

From a psychoanalytic lens, it can be argued that Stockholm syndrome arises strictly as a result of survival instincts. Strentz states, "the victim’s need to survive is stronger than his impulse to hate the person who has created the dilemma." A positive emotional bond between captor and captive is a "defense mechanism of the ego under stress".[4] These sentimental feelings are not strictly for show, however. Since captives often fear that their affection will be perceived as fake, they eventually begin to believe that their positive sentiments are genuine.

Attachment patterns

Stockholm syndrome is not merely a condition developed in victims of kidnappings or hostage instances. It can also be applied to a wider variety of situations, afflicting victims of domestic or child abuse, human trafficking, and incest. Prisoners of war, political terrorism, cult members, concentration camp prisoners, slaves, and prostitutes" can also fall prey to Stockholm syndrome.[4] It is believed that women are especially subject to develop the condition.[9]

Typically, Stockholm syndrome develops in captives when they engage in "face-to-face contact" with their captors, as well as when captors make captives doubt the likelihood of their survival by aggressively terrorizing them into "helpless, powerless, and submissive" states. This enables captors to appear to be nice people when captors perform acts of kindness on, or fail to "beat, abuse, or rape the victims".[4]

Evolutionarily speaking, research evidence exists to support the genuine scientific nature of Stockholm syndrome.[citation needed] Responses similar to those in human captives have been detected in some reptiles and mammals, primates in particular. Ideas like "dominance hierarchies and submission strategies" assist in devising explanations for the illogical reasoning behind the symptoms of those suffering from Stockholm syndrome as a result of an oppressive relationship of any kind.[9]

One of the "adaptive problems faced by our hunter-gatherer ancestors", particularly females, was being abducted by another band. Life in the "human environment of evolutionary adaptiveness" (

EEA) is thought by researchers such as Israeli military historian Azar Gat to be similar to that of the few remaining hunter-gatherer societies. "Deadly violence is also regularly activated in competition over women. . . . Abduction of women, rape, ... are widespread direct causes of reproductive conflict ..."[10] Being captured[11] and having their dependent children killed might have been fairly common.[12] Women who resisted capture in such situations risked being killed.[13]

Azar Gat asserts that war and abductions (capture) were typical of human pre-history.

selection
is intense and persistent, adaptive traits (such as capture-bonding) become universal to the population or species.

Partial activation of the capture-bonding psychological trait may lie behind

Yanomamo, for instance), practically everyone in the tribe is descended from a captive within the last three generations. Perhaps as high as one in ten of females were abducted and incorporated into the tribe that captured them.[15]

Recovery

Recovering from Stockholm syndrome ordinarily involves "psychiatric or psychological counseling," with an end goal of making patients realize that their actions and feelings stemmed from inherent human survival techniques. Counseling aims to reinstate normalcy into the lives of recovering victims, and to make sure that they can function in a way that is not out of fear or in the sole interest of survival.[9]

Controversy

Literature

FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin

Within this work, writer Fuselier questions the frequency with which Stockholm Syndrome actually occurs, as well as the validity of its classifications as a disease or medical condition at all.[4]

The actual victims of the bank robbery and hostage situation in Stockholm 1973 have also told in various interviews that they never sympathized at all with the robber. Instead they feared for their lives because of the actions taken by the police. However the "Stockholm syndrom" was already regarded as a true fact by popular culture.

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM5)

This book is widely used as the "classification system for psychological disorders" by the American Psychiatric Association.[4] Stockholm syndrome has not historically appeared in the manual, as many [citation needed] believe it falls under Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Before the fifth edition (DSM-5) was released, Stockholm syndrome was under consideration to be included under 'Disorders of Extreme Stress, Not Otherwise Specified'.[4] The work was updated in 2013, but Stockholm syndrome was not present.[16]

Loving to Survive

First published in 1994, author Dee Graham uses the Stockholm syndrome label to describe group or collective responses to trauma, rather than individual reactions. Graham focuses specifically on the impact of Stockholm syndrome on battered and abused women as a community.[4] She claimed that in both the psychological and societal senses, these women are defined by their sense of fear surrounding the threat of male violence. This constant fear is what drives these women to perform actions that they know will be pleasing to men in order to avoid emotional, physical, or sexual assault as a result of male anger. Graham draws parallels between women and kidnapping victims in the sense that these women bond to men to survive, as captives bond to their captors to survive.[4]

Professional

Robbins and Anthony (1982)

Robbins and Anthony, who had historically studied a condition similar to Stockholm syndrome, known as destructive cult disorder, observed in their 1982 study that the 1970s were rich with apprehension surrounding the potential risks of brainwashing. They assert that brainwashing’s media attention during this time resulted in the fluid reception of Stockholm syndrome as a psychological condition.[4]

In popular culture

Films and television

Other media

See also

References

  1. ^ Jameson, Celia (2010). "The Short Step From Love to Hypnosis: A Reconsideration of the Stockholm Syndrome". Journal for Cultural Research. 14.4: 337–355 – via Elsevior.
  2. ^ a b Mackenzie, Ian K. "The Stockholm Syndrome Revisited: Hostages, Relationships, Prediction, Control, and Psychological Science". Journal For Police Crisis Negotiations. 4: 5–21 – via Elsevior.
  3. ^ a b Sundaram, Chandar S. (2013). "Stockholm Syndrome". Salem Press Encyclopedia – via Research Starters.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Adorjan, Michael, Tony Christensen, Benjamin Kelly, and Dorothy Pawluch. "Stockholm Syndrome As Vernacular Resource." The Sociological Quarterly 53.3 (2012): 454-74. SocINDEX with Full Text [EBSCO]. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.
  5. ^ Nils Bejerot: The six day war in Stockholm New Scientist 1974, volume 61, number 886, page 486-487
  6. ^ Ochberg, Frank The Ties That Bind Captive to Captor, Los Angeles Times, April 8, 2005
  7. ISBN 4-431-29566-6. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help
    )
  8. International Press Service. July 10, 1996. Retrieved May 8, 2009. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help
    )
  9. ^ a b c Åse, Cecilia. "Crisis Narratives And Masculinist Protection." International Feminist Journal of Politics 17.4 (2015): 595-610. Political Science Complete. Web. 2 Nov. 2016.
  10. ^ a b Published in Anthropological Quarterly, 73.2 (2000), 74–88. The Human Motivational Complex: Evolutionary Theory and the Causes of Hunter-Gatherer Fighting, Azar Gat Part II: Proximate, Subordinate, and Derivative Causes"
  11. ^ "The percentage of females in the lowland villages who have been abducted is significantly higher: 17% compared [with] 11.7% in the highland villages." (Napoleon Chagnon quoted at Sexual Polarization in Warrior Cultures)
  12. Yanomamo warriors when she was eleven years old. ... But none were so horrifying as the second [raid]: 'They killed so many.' ... The man then took the baby by his feet and bashed him against the rocks ..." (Hrdy quoted in Sexual Polarization in Warrior Cultures
    )
  13. ^ "The Shaur and Achuar Jivaros, once deadly enemies. ... A significant goal of these wars was geared toward the annihilation of the enemy tribe, including women and children. ... There were, however, many instances where the women and children were taken as prisoners ... A woman who fights, or a woman who refuses to accompany the victorious war-party to their homes and serve a new master, exposes herself to the risk of suffering the same fate as her men-folk." (Up de Graff also in Sexual Polarization in Warrior Cultures)
  14. ISBN 978-1-4303-2840-7
    .
  15. ^ a b Henson, Keith (Summer 2006). "Evolutionary Psychology, Memes and the Origin of War". Mankind Quarterly. 46 (4). The Council for Social and Economic Studies. Archived from the original on December 9, 2012. Retrieved May 15, 2017. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  16. ISBN 0890425558
    .
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