No. 120 - Stockholm Syndrome

I learned that Stockholm syndrome is a psychological phenomenon in which hostages exhibit positive feelings towards their captors that would normally appear irrational in light of the dangers experienced by those victims.

It got its name from a bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden in 1973 in which the robbers held employees hostage for six days. During the ordeal, the victims became emotionally attached to their captors, and even defended them after they were freed.

Some conditions necessary for Stockholm syndrome to occur include:

1. The captor becomes the person in control of the captive’s basic needs for survival and the victim’s life itself.
2. Perpetrators routinely keep information about the outside world’s response to their actions from captives to keep them totally dependent.
3. The captive judges it safer to align with the perpetrator, endure the hardship of captivity, and comply with the captor than to resist.
4. The captive sees the perpetrator as showing some degree of kindness.

I heard this syndrome being described on the Quinn & Rose show on XM Radio this morning. A letter from a listener was being read on the air, which alluded that many Americans could be experiencing a type of Stockholm syndrome as a result of their captor (their government) providing so many programs which enable them to live off the system that it created.

Go back and read the list over in this context, thinking about the many social benefit programs (unemployment compensation, welfare, food stamps, health insurance, social security, etc.), coupled with the mainstream media's spin on information pertaining to the economy, politics, war, etc., which is all done under the guise of kindness to make the world a better place.

I thought it was an interesting analogy.