Blog: The True Origin of Stockholm Syndrome
I’m sure you’ve all heard of Stockholm Syndrome. It’s been used countless times in movies and TV series, rather comedically to exaggerate the phenomenon. It’s introduced to explain why hostages sometimes develop a psychological bond with their captors, with the underlying assumption that emotions can develop between captors and captives during intimate time together. Sounds wild, right? This syndrome is, however, not proven, nor is it part of the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) as a formal diagnosis. And people have now raised concerns about the syndrome and how to de-influence it. But it’s still part of the curriculum and is widely known and used by the general population. So, I wanted to understand how it came about and why it’s so popular despite being wrong. And what I found was an extremely interesting story.
To set the scene, it's August 23, 1973, in Stockholm. Jan-Erik Olsson, who’s a lifelong criminal, walked into the bank, pulled out a gun from his jacket, and intended to rob the bank. Naturally, people were afraid, and some tried to flee. To control the chaos, he ordered some of the hostages to tie each other up, while a silent alarm was sounded and police filled the scene. To escape the police, he takes four hostages with him into the vault. After a six-day siege, as the victims were released, everyone expected them to hate their captor and testify against him in court. To everyone’s surprise, they hugged the captor and defended him in court. Particularly, the actions of a woman named Kristin Enmark got traction as she talked to the Swedish Prime Minister and asked him to grant Jan his demands, and that she would go with him. This prompted the police psychiatrist Niels Bejerot to coin the term ‘Stockholm Syndrome’, where captives, especially female captives, would develop feelings for their male captors. Because that apparently was the only thing that explained the circumstances.
Now, if we ignore the popularised and condensed version of events, we see the finer details, such as the incompetence of the police, how they bungled the operation, how Jan was actually kind to the captives while in the vault, how the captives did not trust the police not to hurt them in the process of catching Jan, and that Kristin actually offered to go with Jan because her fellow hostage had kids at home. And we then understand how complex survival is, what happens to someone in such situations, and how captives react. And that the theory that Niels put forth without even talking to the captives is just a hunch that came from a biased and sexist mindset. But the theory wouldn’t have gotten popular if, a few years later, Patty Hearst used it as a reason to get lenience for robbing banks along with the Symbionese Liberation Army after being kidnapped. After that, it started being sensationalised because it's against what you would expect. And now people use it to reduce and dehumanise what kidnapping victims go through and blame them for not trying to escape sooner. But they don’t understand that when you’re a captive, you do whatever you can to stay safe, and sometimes, that means listening to your captors so they don’t hurt you.
I think this is a good example of understanding the origin of something and then making a decision rather than just believing what everyone says. Just like how ‘Curiosity killed the cat’ or ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’ are not the actual quotes, we need to recognize that things originate and evolve differently and take different forms than what they’re intended to be, and that everything has to be seen from its origin and its evolution before trying to use it. Especially in this day and age, where people try to manipulate facts for their own good, we need to critically evaluate and question everything to know its actual meaning rather than trusting them blindly.
Interesting Links and Other random facts I included in my talk:
- A good podcast from ABC on Stockholm Syndrome.
- Binary code was initially developed for the textile industry.
- The LOL (Little Old Ladies) Department of NASA, which built the Random Core Memory.
Random Personal Recommendations:
- Book called: “The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls” by Mona Eltahawy
- The work by Sarah Williams from the Civic Data Design Lab.
