Why is stockholm syndrome

In one phone call from the bank's vault to the country's prime minister Olof Palme, Ehnmark begged to be allowed to leave the bank with the kidnappers. One of Olsson's demands had been the delivery of a getaway car in which he planned to escape with the hostages. The authorities had refused. Telling Palme that she was "very disappointed" with him, Ehnmark said: "I think you are sitting there playing chequers with our lives. I fully trust Clark and the robber. I am not desperate.

They haven't done a thing to us. On the contrary, they have been very nice. But you know, Olof, what I'm scared of is that the police will attack and cause us to die. American journalist Daniel Lang interviewed everyone involved in the drama a year later for the New Yorker.

It paints the most extensive picture of how captors and captives interacted. The hostages spoke of being well treated by Olsson, and at the time it appeared that they believed they owed their lives to the criminal pair, he wrote.

On one occasion a claustrophobic Elisabeth Oldgren was allowed to leave the vault that had become their prison but only with a rope fixed around her neck. She said that at the time she thought it was "very kind" of Olsson to allow her to move around the floor of the bank. Safstrom said he even felt gratitude when Olsson told him he was planning to shoot him - to show the police understood he meant business - but added he would make sure he didn't kill him and would let him get drunk first.

Stockholm Syndrome is typically applied to explain the ambivalent feelings of the captives, but the feelings of the captors change too. Olsson remarked at the beginning of the siege he could have "easily" killed the hostages but that had changed over the days.

If they hadn't, I might not be here now. Why didn't any of them attack me? They made it hard to kill. They made us go on living together day after day, like goats, in that filth. There was nothing to do but get to know each other. A person with Stockholm syndrome develops positive associations with their captors or abusers. Keep reading to learn more about Stockholm syndrome and its causes, symptoms, and treatment, as well as some of the more famous specific case examples. The term Stockholm syndrome is the name for a psychological response to captivity and abuse.

Experts do not fully understand this response formation but think it may serve as a coping mechanism for people who experience trauma. A person can develop Stockholm syndrome when they experience significant threats to their physical or psychological well-being.

A kidnapped person may develop positive associations with their captors if they have face-to-face contact with them. If the person has experienced physical abuse from their captor, they may feel gratitude when the abuser treats them humanely or does not physically harm them. A person may also attempt to appease an abuser in order to secure their safety. This strategy can positively reinforce the idea that they might be better off working with an abuser or captor.

This could be another factor behind the development of Stockholm syndrome. Mental health experts do not recognize Stockholm syndrome as an official mental health disorder. Criminologist and psychiatrist Nils Bejerot originally coined the term Stockholm syndrome to explain the aftermath of a bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden, in The two remained inside the bank with the four hostages. The situation developed into a six-day stand-off with police. The hostages reported that Olsson and Oloffson treated them kindly and did not physically harm them.

They defended their captors and refused to testify against them. Olsson even displayed positive feelings towards the hostages. Many researchers, psychologists, and criminologists do not fully understand Stockholm syndrome, and some continue to debate whether it exists at all. After release, a person with Stockholm syndrome may continue to have positive feelings towards their captor.

However, they may also experience flashbacks, depression , anxiety , and post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD. Although there is no clear definition of Stockholm syndrome, experts have linked it to other psychological phenomena associated with abuse, such as:. In a study , researchers attempted to establish an association between Stockholm syndrome and sex trafficking. The researchers reviewed personal accounts from female sex workers living in India.

The narratives included in the study describe several conditions that have associations with Stockholm syndrome. The public flooded police headquarters with suggestions for ending the standoff that ranged from a concert of religious tunes by a Salvation Army band to sending in a swarm of angry bees to sting the perpetrators into submission.

Press photographers and police snipers lie side by side on a roof opposite the bank where hostages were being held on August 24, Holed up inside a cramped bank vault, the captives quickly forged a strange bond with their abductors. Olsson draped a wool jacket over the shoulders of hostage Kristin Enmark when she began to shiver, soothed her when she had a bad dream and gave her a bullet from his gun as a keepsake. By the second day, the hostages were on a first-name basis with their captors, and they started to fear the police more than their abductors.

On the contrary, they have been very nice. But, you know, Olof, what I am scared of is that the police will attack and cause us to die. Even when threatened with physical harm, the hostages still saw compassion in their abductors.