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Stockholm Syndrome
Empathy with captor or
abuser makes for an
interesting abnormality
By Charles Sebastian, Staff Writer
Stockholm syndrome remains
one of the most interesting abnormalities in the psychiatric canon.
The concept is that someone who
is held captive or subjected to
ongoing abuse becomes empathic
with the captor or abuser. While
this seems completely illogical to
someone outside the situation, it is
very real and very potent for those
within the relationship.
Several theories have been posited over the years to explain this
bizarre phenomenon. Perhaps
the best known comes from the
Freudian model. This claims that
the ego builds walls around itself
for protection and survival. At some
point the ego feels it must identify
or sympathize with the captor or
abuser to understand his or her
motivations to a fuller degree.
While this has been a widely held
2 HAMBURG JOURNAL
Freudian notion for many years, it
does not explain all cases.
The syndrome received its
name from an incident in August
1973, when six employees were
held hostage during a robbery at
Kreditbanken bank in Stockholm,
Sweden. During their six days of
captivity, the hostages refused the
government’s offers of help, siding
with their captors. Nils Bejerot, a
criminal psychiatrist involved with
the case at the time, coined the
term “Stockholm syndrome” after
the event.
It is important to distinguish
Stockholm syndrome from the
“brainwashing” we may have seen
depicted in many movies and
books. The case of Patty Hearst is a
prime example of this phenomenon
where, once kidnapped, the victim
is subjected to a new belief system
and changes to suit the situation.
Stockholm syndrome specifically
has the captive empathizing with
the captor, sometimes to the point
of risking life and limb for the captor, should the opportunity arise.
Holding someone captive is
nothing new in the history of the
human race, and it is for this reason
evolutionary psychologists claim
Stockholm syndrome is a muchneeded coping mechanism. It’s
probably in our genes to be able to
humanize others, even those who
might harm us. This in some way
speaks to the humanity that we had
to develop over millennia to build
a society based on certain values.
Certainly one survival mechanism
would have been the ability to
identify with those who might do
you harm – to see their point of
view and to not kill over land, food,
women or chattel unless it was
absolutely necessary.
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&
The syndrome received its name
from an incident in August 1973.
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