Stockholm Syndrome describes the behavior of kidnap victims who, over time, become sympathetic to their captors. The name derives from a 1973 hostage incident in Stockholm, Sweden. At the end of six days of captivity in a bank, several kidnap victims actually resisted rescue attempts, and afterwards refused to testify against their captors.
and it is for fun...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryxfVB_MlfA&feature=related
6 comments:
I've always wondered why Stockholm Syndrome affects some people who have been kidnapped but not all of them. I guess this is where people who subscribe to different schools of Psychology differ.
Maybe the biological guys would say it's about the genetic make-up of the individual and as a result that is how they react under extreme duress. I can't think of what others would say, but I'm sure there are many theories on why this only gets some people and not others.
I've always wondered why people choose not to testify against their captors or press charges. It seems odd to me that someone could ruin your life, or change it drastically and then you don't have the courage to speak out against them. I guess people try not to revisit the past, and maybe not testifying or whatever makes it easier for the victim to forget their bad experience.
Jun, Tell us why you chose to share Stockholm Syndrome with us. What about it piques your curiosity?
Common experience helps to foster a relationship. Sharing an experience as extreme that shared between captive and captor seems like a sure-fire way to create a bond between the two people, as freaky as it might seem. Of course, every hostage situation is different because there are no two captive-captor pair that have the same chemistry. So maybe sometimes it's about fear, maybe sometimes there's a true sympathy involved, and then of course there are instances of mostly hatred. So I think Stockholm syndrome efects some people and not others because our emotions and reasoning are not formulaic and unchanging from peron to person. Just like flowers on a first date works for some people and free cocktails works better for others. (Maybe not just like that but something similar.)
is this working?
YAY! OK- here's what I wanted to comment:
-This was a very interesting read, to say the least. I liked reading about Stokholm Syndrom, and then putting into context with things that are going on the world today.
-Upon my curiosity I searched this disorder on wikipedia (I know, not the best) - merely just for more examples and cases of Stokholm Syndrome. As I link hopped, I came across an article on a website called "Crime Library", and under Criminal Psychology was this case "The Girl In The Box".
-It was a few pages long, split up into chapters, and was a perfect example of Stokholm Syndrome. The case was about a young woman in the 70's who was kidnapped and taken hostage, and who ended up being a sex slave to a man (with a family!) for seven years! She really thought it was going to be the rest of her life and was completely indifferent to the trial and his prosecution! Her disorder impeded the case at times because she felt reliant on him and she never mentioned how she had told him she loved him, writing him letters, and never trying to escape when he "granted her" a few hourse to herself (or himself).
-Although the kidnapper, Cameron Hooker argued her voluntary devotion to him, he was eventually convicted for a whole slue of things: kidnapping, rape, sex crimes, etc. (and not only for her case, they uncovered his whole sadistic history) and is still in jail. I believe it calculates out to 104 years max.
-Anyway, that was really a messed up story, and even though I wanted to stop frequently, I really couldn't. Good thing there's at least some release at the end, and the girl turned out ok.
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