Stockholm Syndrome

[waysider]

I have been reading some articles about Stockholm Syndrome.

Here is one of them.

Perhaps there is some insight here regarding why no one needed to hold a gun to our heads and why it is so difficult for some people to allow themselves to admit they've been duped.

The following are excerpts from a somewhat lengthy but very enlightening article.

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On August 23rd, 1973 two machine-gun carrying criminals entered a bank in Stockholm, Sweden. Blasting their guns, one prison escapee named Jan-Erik Olsson announced to the terrified bank employees “The party has just begun!” The two bank robbers held four hostages, three women and one man, for the next 131 hours. The hostages were strapped with dynamite and held in a bank vault until finally rescued on August 28th.

After their rescue, the hostages exhibited a shocking attitude considering they were threatened, abused, and feared for their lives for over five days. In their media interviews, it was clear that they supported their captors and actually feared law enforcement personnel who came to their rescue. The hostages had begun to feel the captors were actually protecting them from the police. One woman later became engaged to one of the criminals and another developed a legal defense fund to aid in their criminal defense fees. Clearly, the hostages had “bonded” emotionally with their captors.

While the psychological condition in hostage situations became known as “Stockholm Syndrome” due to the publicity, the emotional “bonding” with captors was a familiar story in psychology. It had been recognized many years before and was found in studies of other hostage, prisoner, or abusive situations such as:

* Abused Children

* Battered/Abused Women

* Prisoners of War

* Cult Members

* Incest Victims

* Criminal Hostage Situations

* Concentration Camp Prisoners

* Controlling/Intimidating Relationships

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Cognitive Dissonance

Leon Festinger first coined the term “Cognitive Dissonance”. He had observed a cult (1956) in which members gave up their homes, incomes, and jobs to work for the cult. This cult believed in messages from outer space that predicted the day the world would end by a flood. As cult members and firm believers, they believed they would be saved by flying saucers at the appointed time. As they gathered and waited to be taken by flying saucers at the specified time, the end-of-the-world came and went. No flood and no flying saucer! Rather than believing they were foolish after all that personal and emotional investment — they decided their beliefs had actually saved the world from the flood and they became firmer in their beliefs after the failure of the prophecy. The moral: the more you invest (income, job, home, time, effort, etc.) the stronger your need to justify your position. If we invest $5.00 in a raffle ticket, we justify losing with “I’ll get them next time”. If you invest everything you have, it requires an almost unreasoning belief and unusual attitude to support and justify that investment.

Source:

http://counsellingresource.com/quizzes/stockholm/

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Food for thought

[Twinky]

I've often thought this, too, Waysider.

[mchud11]

i agree too, Waysider, its eerie to think about it, yet...well, it feels true..

Oh, and I am damaged goods..

Edited January 22, 2009 by mchud11

[Tzaia]

And this also applies to the thoughts that most of us had that "other" religious organizations had too much time and energy invested in *their* respective belief systems to consider another position while *WE* were open to new and different ideas - all the while we were in the same rut as the groups we held in such disdain.

[Jim]

You may find both The Stanford Prison Experiment and The Milgram Experiment of interest. Both deal with unexpected consequences of coercing people. Stanley Milgram wrote an interesting book based on his experiment titled Obedience to Authority.

[Bolshevik]

So now, when I yell at wayfers, I shall say "you damned cognitive dissonant"

[kimberly]

Alas, menopause explained.