Stockholm Syndrome

Why Stockholm Syndrome? This term appeared after the events of 1973 in Stockholm. A criminal who escaped from prison alone took the bank and took four of his employees hostage. After some time, at the request of the offender, his cellmate was taken to the bank. Five days after the capture, the police released the hostages. Subsequently, the former hostages confessed that they feared the police, and not the invaders, since the invaders did them no harm. According to some reports, they even hired lawyers for their money.

After these events, the Swedish criminalist andpsychiatrist Niels Beyerut, who spoke during the robbery as a consultant in psychiatry, and suggested using the term "Stockholm syndrome" to describe defensive-subconscious traumatic connection between the victim and the aggressor. This syndrome is also known as hostage identification syndrome, common sense syndrome, Stockholm factor, hostage survival syndrome, etc.

At first glance, the Stockholm syndrome seems paradoxical, but most researchers consider it normal reaction to an event that is very traumatic for the psyche. The underlying mechanism of the syndromepsychological defense was described 37 years before the events in Stockholm by British psychologist and psychoanalyst Anna Freud, daughter of Sigmund Freud. She gave him the name "Identification with the aggressor".

Thus, the Stockholm syndrome is not a mental disorder, you will not find it in any international classification system for psychiatric diseases. What is the basis of this psychological defense mechanism? The victim believes that if she is unconditionalto fulfill all the demands of the aggressor, he will show indulgence. Therefore, she tries in every possible way to demonstrate obedience, in order to evoke the approval and patronage of the aggressor, begins to justify his actions.

Most people associate the Stockholm syndrome with hostage-taking, capturing prisoners of war, concentration camps and prisons, kidnapping people and other resonant events. but with this syndrome it is possible to encounter in everyday life. For example, the marriage traditions of some peoples can provoke the development of the Stockholm syndrome.

I can not believe it? Let's remember the tradition of abduction of the bride, which is still practiced in some regions. Now this tradition is mostly symbolic, but in some villages brides can still steal without their consent. And after a while it turns out that the victim of kidnapping became attached to the kidnapper, and even if there is an opportunity to return to the home, she does not use it.

However, kidnapping brides still seemmost of us have something distant and semi-real. Do you think if you do not live in a forgotten village in the Caucasus, you have no chance to encounter the Stockholm syndrome? No matter how it is. There is a so-called household Stockholm syndrome, it occurs more often than you think.

For sure, looking through the headlines of the news, you do notonce faced with a description of cases of domestic violence. Have you noticed that quite often in such news it is mentioned that the case described was not the first in this family? This is the household Stockholm syndrome - when the victim of domestic violence suffers bullying and at the same time feels sympathy for the aggressor ("Beats means loves"). Also, victims of rape are susceptible to the Stockholm syndrome.

Despite the replicability of the term, Stockholm syndrome is not so common. Not all hostages begin to experiencesympathy for the invaders. As for the domestic Stockholm syndrome, here, too, everything is not so simple: usually bullying is not due to sympathy for the aggressor, but for the sake of children, because of financial dependence on the aggressor, etc.