Have you ever heard of Norrmalmstorgssyndromet. No? I’m not surprised. Coined by the criminologist and psychiatrist Nils Bejerot, it is named after the robbery of Kreditbanken at Norrmalmstorg, Sweden August 1973 in which several bank employees were held hostage for four days in a bank vault while their captors negotiated with police. But you might know it by its anglicised name: Stockholm Syndrome.
Stockholm syndrome is a psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy, sympathy and positive feelings toward their captors, sometimes to the point of defending and identifying with them. These feelings are generally considered irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims, who essentially mistake a lack of abuse from their captors for an act of kindness.
During the Norrmalmstorg standoff, the victims became emotionally attached to their captors, rejected assistance from government officials at one point, and even defended their captors after they were freed from their six-day ordeal.
Have you ever been held against your will? Perhaps with a mortgage, or waiting for that rental agreement to end. Was it on an overseas holiday that had a lot more baggage than there seemed to be on the airport carousel and in the overhead locker. Maybe it was the long, long wait for permanent residency. Maybe it was just the long wait for him to become emotionally available.
Stockholm syndrome is a psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy, sympathy and positive feelings toward their captors, sometimes to the point of defending and identifying with them. These feelings are generally considered irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims, who essentially mistake a lack of abuse from their captors for an act of kindness.
During the Norrmalmstorg standoff, the victims became emotionally attached to their captors, rejected assistance from government officials at one point, and even defended their captors after they were freed from their six-day ordeal.
Have you ever been held against your will? Perhaps with a mortgage, or waiting for that rental agreement to end. Was it on an overseas holiday that had a lot more baggage than there seemed to be on the airport carousel and in the overhead locker. Maybe it was the long, long wait for permanent residency. Maybe it was just the long wait for him to become emotionally available.
I wonder if Norrmalmstorgssyndromet explains all longer-term human relationships. There’s the initial honeymoon, the swoon, head over heels. And then, before you know it, there you are defending the indefensible, supporting the outrageous. Even craving it. Now, heels over head, the slightest kindness and you go to pieces.
Why do people stay together when they so often behave so badly to each other. Also called capture-bonding, Stockholm syndrome does not necessarily require a hostage scenario: It can be seen as a form of traumatic bonding, which describes strong emotional ties that develop between two persons where one person intermittently harasses, mistreats, or intimidates the other.
When you think about it, it’s not a very big change between rapture and capture. Six days was it? I guess I’ll let you know if I ever find myself in such a long-term relationship.
Why do people stay together when they so often behave so badly to each other. Also called capture-bonding, Stockholm syndrome does not necessarily require a hostage scenario: It can be seen as a form of traumatic bonding, which describes strong emotional ties that develop between two persons where one person intermittently harasses, mistreats, or intimidates the other.
When you think about it, it’s not a very big change between rapture and capture. Six days was it? I guess I’ll let you know if I ever find myself in such a long-term relationship.
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