Saturday, June 13, 2009

Stockholm Syndrome







A phenomenon in which a hostage begins to identify with and grow sympathetic to his or her captor. It is a psychological response.

The syndrome is named after the Norrmalmstorg robbery of Kreditbanken at Norrmalmstorg in Stockholm, the capital and largest city of Sweden, in the eastern part of the country on the Baltic Sea, in which the bank robbers held bank employees hostage from August 23 to August 28 in 1973. In this case, the victims became emotionally attached to their victimizers, and even defended their captors after they were freed from their six-day ordeal. The term "Stockholm Syndrome" was coined by the criminologist and psychiatrist Nils Bejerot, who assisted the police during the robbery, and referred to the syndrome in a news broadcast.

It is something that saves the captor….the captor gives a punch, the hostage gives a kiss in return, both are indeed touching….cannot be easily forgotten, memory for lifetime…This is seen especially with small children, when they cry, how others react to the situation...

Of late there was also a similar Tamil movie, don’t remember the name, but then, it was an irreconcilable one, the lover husband, hijacking a hospital for his wives operation, and finally giving up his life for her…the hostages being to identify with and grow sympathetic to his captor the hero of the move, the auto driver.

Well why this now? I believe this is being experienced now. Thanks to the person for bringing this to my notice, and to the person with Stockholm syndrome…

2 comments:

Sreeram said...

Oh, my God. That sounds strange!

me ra said...

Just a metaphor