Tagged: hostage
Stockholm Syndrome Explained by the Stanford Prison Experiment
Stockholm Syndrome can be referred to as a joke in the popular culture, and many people do not take it seriously as much as other common psychiatric problems such as PTSD, a psychological illness usually caused by a traumatic event like physical aggression. It cannot be treated seriously because there is no medical standard to properly diagnose a person with “Stockholm Syndrome.” However, this supposed illness is a real problem that affects the minority of people who are abducted usually by criminals who have no interest in the hostage’s safety.
The first recorded case of hostages with Stockholm Syndrome was during a bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden. In August 23 to 28, 1973, the bank robbers negotiated with the police to leave the bank safely. While trying to form an agreement, the majority of the captive bank employees were unusually sympathetic towards the robber, and, even after being set free, refused to leave their captors. The criminologist and the psychiatrist who were investigating the robbery coined the term for their conditions “Stockholm Syndrome.”
