Description and characteristics of Stockholm syndrome

An acute psychological situation in which the victim is imbued with sympathy for their tormentors is called Stockholm Syndrome. This happens during the taking of hostages. If the criminals are caught, then the victim of this syndrome can actively participate in the further fate of their tormentors. Such people ask for a reduced sentence for them, visit them in prison, etc. Stockholm Syndrome is not an official neurological disease, since in hostage-taking situations only 8% succumb to its influence. The symptoms and treatment of this ailment will be described below.

First mention

In 1973, three women and one man were seized at a Stockholm bank by two kidnappers. For 6 days, they threatened to take their lives, but sometimes they gave indulgences and a little peace of mind. However, when trying to free the hostages, the rescue operation ran into an unexpected problem: all the victims tried to prevent themselves from being released and after the incident asked for amnesty for the criminals.

Each victim visited her tormentors in prison, and one of the women divorced her husband and swore love and loyalty to the guy who held a gun to her temple. The two former hostages even married their captors. This psychological reaction was first described by the forensic scientist Bijert.

The most common form of hostage sympathy is considered to be the household Stockholm syndrome. This is a banal psychological and physical violence in the family. A person does not feel like a victim, and such relationships are not uncommon between husband and wife, parents and children.

Stockholm syndrome in the family

Stockholm syndrome in the family also harms the people around them, because they know about the violence, but they cannot do anything, because the victim does not consider himself a victim.

Children who grow up in such a family also become victims. From childhood, they see a negative subconscious influence even with a positive attitude. What is happening greatly affects their perception of the world. Depression often accompanies these people in adulthood.

Causes of occurrence

Psychologists have proven that a long-term emotional shock can significantly affect the subconscious of victims and change their attitude towards the aggressors. When a person is completely dependent on an aggressive offender, then he interprets all his actions in his favor - this is the mechanism of the syndrome. But this only works for psychological emotional abuse, provided that physical abuse is not applied to the victim. There are cases when the victim and the offender were together for months. In such cases, the former realized that the kidnapper would not cause physical harm, and began to provoke them. The consequences of such rash behavior can be completely different and very dangerous.

Violence in family

Stockholm hostage syndrome has the following causes:

• loyalty to victims;
• threat to life, manifested by a maniac;
• long stay of the hostage and abductor;
• only one variant of the event is possible, which is dictated by the invaders.

Symptoms of the syndrome

In order to determine the presence of the syndrome, you need to take a closer look at the person. All people who have been or are in similar situations have certain signs.

1. During long-term communication with the kidnapper, the victim distorts the real perspective of what is happening in his subconscious. She often considers the kidnapper's motives to be correct, just, and the only true.
2. When a person is under stress and fear for his life for a long time, all attempts and actions to improve the situation are perceived negatively. In this case, the hostage is afraid of release, because when trying to release the risk only increases. In such family relationships, the victim is afraid to make the tyrant even more angry if he starts to fight with him, so he leaves everything unchanged.
3. When a person who is abused chooses the behavior of submissiveness and pleasing, with long-term communication, they develop into sympathy, approval and understanding. In such cases, the hostage acquits one of the attackers, and the victim justifies the tyrant of the house.

Survival tactics with tormentor

With prolonged contact in a relationship with a tyrant, the victim develops rules of behavior.

Survival tactics

1. The desire to keep the peace in the family makes the victim forget about their desires and live the life of the abuser. She sets herself the task of completely satisfying all the desires of the tyrant.
2. The sufferer can convince himself of the good intentions of the domestic maniac and awaken feelings of respect, love, and encouragement.
3. When the male aggressor is in a good mood and the wife creates illusions about restoring peace in the family, fearing to break such good behavior towards her.
4. Complete secrecy of their relationships and suppression of any attempts of loved ones to help. This is due to fear and rejection of such an attitude towards the victim.
5. Such people try to avoid talking about their personal life or insist that everything is fine.

The hostage's feeling of guilt makes him think that the reasons for this behavior of the aggressor are in himself.

Getting rid of the problem

Stockholm syndrome, which manifests itself in the family, is a purely psychological reaction. Her treatment must be carried out with the help of a psychologist. The psychotherapist helps the patient to solve 3 problems:

• lack of logic in actions;
• the concept of the illusion of all hopes;
• acceptance of victim status.

An everyday case is the most difficult, the thoughts and fear imposed by the aggressor can last for years. It is difficult to convince such a person to leave the tyrant - since this is the only way out of this situation.

Treatment can take from several months to several years, it all depends on the person who has been abused.

Historical examples

Life examples prove the existence of this ailment in many people. In addition to the first mention in Stockholm, the case in Peru, when the Japanese embassy was seized by terrorists, is considered a vivid manifestation. At that moment, 500 guests of the residence and the ambassador himself were captured. Two weeks later, 220 hostages were released, who during their release defended their abductors and acted on their side.

Later it turned out that some of the hostages were released because of sympathy for them. Accordingly, the terrorists also developed the syndrome. This phenomenon was called the Lima seizure.

An interesting case of everyday manifestation of the syndrome can be considered the incident with Elizabeth Smart. The girl was 14 years old, she was kept locked up and raped. However, she refused to flee from her tormentors when given the opportunity.