Hi fellas! Been so long since my last post, and now I am back! I want to share something with you guys, and this actually is something that I've discovered for a while now. Hope you enjoy!
Stockholm Syndrome as
a Survival Instinct
Stockholm syndrome. Some
of us may have heard those two words. Maybe from a song title whose a songwriter
used as the song’s inspiration, or maybe from several fictions on reading sites
like Wattpad. But actually, does Stockholm syndrome exist? Let’s check this
out!
The origin
of the syndrome itself was a bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden, back in August
23rd 1973, including the hostage of four people within 131 hours. At that time,
the unusual phenomenon occurred. One of the hostages, Kristin Enmark (23), was
actually ‘bonding’ emotionally with the captor. She even confronted and feared
the police when they were being rescued. She then confessed her dislike towards
the police and defended the captors on the local radio. Later in the interview
with Dina Newman from BBC UK, Kristin told her that he didn’t do anything to
her at all, and that he even told her that he wouldn’t do any harm towards her.
By
the time this case became so popular, some psychologists called this situation
nowadays as Stockholm syndrome.
Definition
of Stockholm Syndrome
The medical definition of Stockholm
syndrome is a psychological symptoms that occurs on some people during the time
of hostage. There are several things that caused this phenomenon:
- Situation that lasts for several days or more
- The captors remain in a contact with the hostages and not being held in separated rooms
- The captors shows kindness, at least no harm was done
After the discovery, several other
cases was linked to Stockholm syndrome. One of the famous cases was the
kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard. When she was 11 years old, Jaycee was taken from
her bedroom by Philip Garrido and his wife, Nancy. During the kidnapping, the
name Jaycee was changed into ‘Alissa’. When she was told that her family
stopped looking for her, she believed and thought that her captors were heroes
for taking her. It was one of the reasons why she didn't try to escape. Being isolated,
she fell into a depression. But she was grateful for still having human
interaction with her captors. That was until she was found and was returned to
her mother. But Jaycee, seeing Garrido being arrested, said that he was
actually a changed man.
Stockholm Syndrome and Survival Instinct
By providing her food, drinks, shelter, and affection, Garrido tried to make
her dependent on him, which makes her under control and doesn’t try to escape. This
leads to assumption that Stockholm syndrome is actually a survival instinct in
a hostage. But on the other hand, Jaycee might not have any other chances but
obeyed him in order not to be harmed. The kidnapping took 18 years, and during
all those time, a lot of contacts were made between Jaycee and the captors. So,
the longer they make a contact, the bigger chance of her developing a positive
feeling towards her captors, though there’s always a chance that she did that
to survive the captive.
A psychologist from University of Oregon, Jennifer Fred, suggested that the
Stockholm syndrome phenomenon kind of similar with what happened to the victims
of domestic violence, such as a child or a wife suffer from abuse done by their
parents or partner. The victims, who are dependent on the abusers, usually surrender
and will not fight back, because the abusers may harm them and stop taking care
of them. They tend to obey in order to avoid trouble. Therefore, they need to
surrender as an act of survival.
Is
there any cure or treatment that can be given to the victims?
Since the Stockholm syndrome phenomenon
has something to do with survival instinct, there are some treatment that can
be given to the victims, such as group therapy where the victims can have an
interpersonal relationship with the other victims, and also family therapy.
Now that we know about Stockholm syndrome phenomenon which actually has a connection with survival instinct. The victims would do anything to survive in a captive or even survive from the violence, including being surrender and developing a positive feeling towards the captors or abusers. Though this phenomenon would sometimes not found in all cases specifically, Stockholm syndrome could still take place, and has something to do with survival instinct.
Now that we know about Stockholm syndrome phenomenon which actually has a connection with survival instinct. The victims would do anything to survive in a captive or even survive from the violence, including being surrender and developing a positive feeling towards the captors or abusers. Though this phenomenon would sometimes not found in all cases specifically, Stockholm syndrome could still take place, and has something to do with survival instinct.
Hopefully,
we all can learn something and this blog post would be so useful and
informative. Adios!
-Mary-
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