why people suffer from stockholm syndrome, what it is?

Question

Share your experience, please

Answer 1

A syndrome in which people empathize with their captors or abusers (this happens with battered women all the time). It develops as a form of conditioning. For instance -- you are being held hostage you hear the plight of the holders and of those holding you, there is a person that always feeds you, gives you water, lets you wash, etc ... after awhile you become reliant on the person for your survival, and his/her plight becomes yours. Think of it as a form of brainwashing.

Answer 2

The next paragraph contains the definition from the source link below.

The Stockholm syndrome is a psychological response sometimes seen in a hostage, in which the hostage exhibits seeming loyalty to the hostage-taker, in spite of the danger (or at least risk) in which the hostage has been placed. Stockholm syndrome is also sometimes discussed in reference to other situations with similar tensions, such as battered woman syndrome, child abuse cases, and bride kidnapping.

Why people suffer from this is in the next paragraph.

According to the psychoanalytic view of the syndrome, the tendency might well be the result of employing the strategy evolved by newborn babies to form an emotional attachment to the nearest powerful adult in order to maximize the probability that this adult will enable - at the very least - the survival of the child, if not also prove to be a good parental figure. This syndrome is considered a prime example for the defense mechanism of identification.

The source link contains tons of other info, such as famous cases (Patty Hearst), movies and books that deal with the subject.

Answer 3

People adapt to their surroundings.

The captor becomes the parent figure in that relationship and the captive becomes the child. Children invariably attach themselves to their parents, at least at first, and don't foresake that attachment until they start leaving the home. Since captors don't let captives leave the home they bond remains strong, until the captive is released or freed and then there comes the reality that the captive has a choice in the matter. The syndrome persists for longer the greater the trauma inflicted on the captive. It is like Post Traumatic Stress disorder in that way. The empathy may pass but the programmed responses may linger on. It is somehow related to the fight or flight mechanism that we all develop. An a Freudian level you might consider the sexual fixation of such an experience as well. Freud would compare this to the Eodipal or Electra complexes, in which the child becomes sexually attached to his/her parent, male to female, female to male. A curious thought is that he never explored male to male and female to female as an explanation for homosexuality, or if he did it wasn't clearly defined. Long story short, the captive may in this sense fall in love with the captor. I hope this helped.

Answer 4

Definition: Stockholm Syndrome--Sex with Swedes?????

Answer 5

There's no Kentucky Fried Chicken in Stockholm

Answer 6

Some people were taken hostage in Stockholm. Before the end of it many of the hostages felt compassion for the hostage takers.

Answer 7

We love our captor in an attempt to join them in ripping off the bank they are holding us captive in. It is a great syndrome.

You are in a bank and being held hostage. You see that your hostage taker is really attractive and you want to sleep with them and have the money and jewels that are going to get robbed. So you help the hostage taker and hook up with this person.

You get laid and get rich and then kill the jerk

Answer 8

Never been kidnapped, and wouldn't succumb to this syndrome.