STOCKHOLM SYNDROME

STOCKHOLM SYNDROME

Also known as Capture-bonding is a psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy and sympathy and have positive feelings toward their captors, sometimes to the point of defending them. These feelings are generally considered irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims, who essentially mistake a lack of abuse from their captors for an act of kindness.

It can be seen as a form of traumatic bonding which does not necessarily require a hostage scenario, but which describes “strong emotional ties that develop between two persons where one person intermittently harasses, abuses, threatens, beats or intimidates the other.”

In 1973, two men entered the Kreditbanken bank in Stockholm, Sweden, intending to rob it. When police entered the bank, the robbers shot them, and a hostage situation ensued. For six days, the robbers held four people at gunpoint, locked in a bank vault, sometimes strapped with explosives and other times forced to put nooses around their own necks. When the police tried to rescue the hostages, the hostages fought them off, defending their captors and blaming the police. One of the freed hostages set up a fund to cover the hostage-takers' legal defence fees. Thus "Stockholm syndrome" was born, and psychologists everywhere had a name for this classic captor-prisoner phenomenon.

This photo was taken by the Stockholm police with a camera drilled through the roof to the main vault in the Kreditbanken bank in Sweden. The bearded man on the right is captor Jan Erik Olsson.

Why do I write this? It is because with the return of the two hostages from Somalia, I got to thinking, how would they adjust to the normal life? It would be difficult for them. One because what they had undergone was a traumatic experience. Their families would be expecting the same men they used to be the very same ones that came back to them. This won’t necessarily be the case. They may end up being withdrawn, have nightmares, not willing to share any information. This will make them seem like different people.

To further make sense of this syndrome, I realised it works in the principle of abusive relationships. There are times when the news had stories on the wife and husband battering. It is a common thing in our day and age. It started way back. It is this syndrome that explains how a man or woman in an abusive relationship would defend the dominant partner.

My suggestion to the Government would be that it establishes a counselling centre for hostages that make it out of the traumatic situation. The few that exist should be publicised since those that need the information may ask for help. If they get information that may help them get out of the situation would be a good thing.