Stockholm Syndrome isn’t a psychological diagnosis. It is a coping strategy whereby captives form a psychological bond with their captors during confinement. These bonds can lead to gentle treatment and less harm from the abuser since they might also create a positive bond with their victims. A hostage identifies closely with his or her captors, as well as with their goals and demands. Psychologists believe that this bond is initially forged when a captor threatens a captive’s life, contemplates, and then chooses not to kill them. The captive’s relief at the absence of the death threat is transferred into feelings of gratitude toward the captor for sparing his or her life.
Psychiatrists use the term Stockholm Syndrome to define a set of psychological characteristics first noticed in hostages during a 1973 bank robbery in Stockholm. Two men held four bank employees, hostage, at gunpoint for six days inside a bank vault. When the standoff came to an end, the captives seemed to have positive feelings for their captors and even compassion toward them. It was first named in 1973 by Nils Bejerot, a criminologist in Stockholm, Sweden. He used it to describe the unforeseen responses hostages of a bank raid had toward their captor.
As the Stockholm bank robbery incident suggests, it takes only a few days for this bond to form, proving that, early on, the victim’s need to survive overpowers the desire to hate the person who created the situation. The survival instinct is at the heart of this syndrome. Victims stay in imposed dependence and perceive small acts of kindness amidst terrifying conditions as good treatment. They often become hypervigilant to the needs and demands of their captors, creating psychological links between the captors’ happiness and their own.
It is also characterized by a negative attitude towards authorities who threaten the captor-captive relationship. They might also have confusing feelings toward the abuser, including love, sympathy, empathy, and a desire to protect them.
From a psychological viewpoint, it can be understood as a survival mechanism. Actually, a few experts may even encourage those in a hostage situation to act as if they are experiencing Stockholm syndrome to increase their chances of survival since a connection with the abuser can potentially make the condition more tolerable for the victim and make the captors more likely to fulfil the captive’s basic needs.
Anna Freud first described something akin to Stockholm syndrome when she talked about identification with an aggressor, or one’s attempt to cope with fear by modifying oneself from the threatened person to the threatening one. Freud considered this to be a defence mechanism that might give one a sense of power in a situation otherwise likely to be terrifying.
In a 1995 publication, Dee L. R. Graham and her colleagues described that Stockholm syndrome may be more probable to occur under the following four conditions:
- Victims feel a perceived threat to their survival by their captors.
- Victims perceive small kindnesses coming from their captors, such as receiving food or not getting hurt.
- Victims are isolated from perspectives other than those of their captors.
- Victims feel helpless.
Physical and psychological effects:
- Cognitive: confusion, blurred memory, delusion, and recurring flashbacks.
- Emotional: lack of feeling, fear, helplessness, hopelessness, aggression, depression, guilt, dependence on captor, and development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – nightmares, insomnia, flashbacks, startling easily.
- Social: anxiety, irritability, cautiousness, and estrangement.
- Physical: increase in effects of pre-existing conditions; development of health conditions due to possible restriction from food, sleep, and exposure to outdoors.
Some key aspects seem to increase the likelihood of Stockholm syndrome. These include:
- Being in an emotionally charged situation for a long time
- Being in a shared space with the captor with poor conditions (e.g. not enough food, physically uncomfortable space)
- When hostages are dependent on a captor for basic needs
- When life threats are not carried out (e.g. mock executions)
- When hostages haven’t been dehumanized
There isn’t very much research on Stockholm syndrome, but it seems that it’s not just people who are held hostage who experience it. It can happen in different settings:
Child Abuse – Abuse can be very confusing for children. Abusers often threaten and physically harm their victims, but simultaneously also express kindness that can be interpreted as love or affection. An emotional bond can develop between the child and the abuser that often protects the abuser for a long time.
Sports Coaching – Children or youth who have abusive athletic coaches might develop Stockholm syndrome if they start to rationalize the coach’s behaviour and then defend or sympathize with them.
Abuse – Sexual, physical, or emotional domestic abuse can lead to confusing emotional bonds between the victim and the abuser.
Sex trafficking – People who are trafficked and forced into sex trade work become dependent on captors for basic needs. They might develop an emotional bond as a way to survive.
Recovering from Stockholm syndrome typically includes psychiatric or psychological counselling, in which the patient is made to realize that their actions and feelings originate from inherent human survival techniques. The process involves restoring normalcy into their lives, including helping the victim learn how to diminish their survival-driven behaviours. Therapy can help through recovery, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression. A therapist can also help in learning healthy coping mechanisms and help process the feelings and learn response tools to help understand what happened, why it happened, and how to move forward. They can also help you alter attitudes and emotions to understand that this is a survival mechanism you used to get through an experience.
– Urveez Kakalia and Dhara Mehta.