Stockholm Syndrome

Mr. Noble
Psychology 1
LOHS
Background
What is Stockholm Syndrome?
• “Stockholm Syndrome” first coined by Professor
Nils Bejerot to explain the phenomenon of hostages
bonding with their captors.
• Stockholm, Sweden 1973, two bank robbers held four
people hostages for six days.
• Wide publicity: hostages came to care about their captors
and perceive them as protecting them against the police.
• The syndrome, or cluster of symptoms, observed in
hostages, cult members, battered women and victims of
sexual and physical abuse.
The Case
August 23rd, 1973
Two machine-gun carrying criminals entered
bank in Stockholm, Sweden.
Firing guns, one prison escapee, Jan-Erik
Olsson, announced to bank employees
"The party has just begun!"
Bank robbers held four hostages (three
women, one man) for next 131 hours.
Hostages strapped with dynamite and held
in a bank vault until rescue on August
28th.
Outcome
• After their rescue, hostages exhibited a shocking attitude
considering they were threatened, abused and feared for their lives
for over five days.
• In their media interviews, it was clear that they supported their
captors and actually feared law enforcement personnel who came
to their rescue.
• Hostages began to feel captors were protecting them from police.
• One female hostage later became engaged to one of the criminals.
• Another developed legal defense fund to aid in criminal defense
fees.
• Clearly, the hostages had “bonded” emotionally with their captors.
Situational
It has been recognized many years before
the ‘Syndrome’ was diagnosed--and was
found in studies of other hostage, prisoner,
or abusive situations such as:
 Abused Children
 Battered/Abused Women
 Prisoners of War
 Cult Members
 Criminal Hostage Situations
 Controlling/Intimidating
Relationships
Symptoms 1
• Emotional bonding w) captor/abuser
• Requiring victim isolation from
outside world
• Subjecting victim to:
–
–
–
–
sexual assault
threats of harm to self
threats of harm to self family
demanding conformity to dress and
culture different than previous norm
• Seeking favor & approval from
perpetrator
• Dependency on perpetrator for
security & purpose of existence
• Befriending & caring for perpetrator
Symptoms 2
• Resenting police & proper
authorities for rescue attempts
• Losing one's own identify in order to
identify with the captor/abuser (i.e.
one of Freud’s Defense Mechanisms)
• Seeing things from perspective of
perpetrator
• Valuing every small gesture of
kindness (i.e. letting them live)
• Refusing to seek freedom even given
the opportunity
Survival Strategy
• Many psychologists and psychiatrists have
considered the ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ a survival
strategy where there is:
– Constant threat to physical & psychological survival
– Condition of helplessness and hopelessness
– Isolation & loss of support systems from outside
world
– Context of trauma & terror that shatters previously
held assumptions
– Perception that survival depends on total surrender
& compliance
Vulnerability
• Obviously, not everyone in hostage situation will
fall victim to ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ -- Individuals
are most vulnerable, if they:
– Lack a clear set of core values that
define one's identify
– Lack a clear sense of meaning and
purpose for one's life
– Lack a track record of overcoming
difficulties
– Lack strong personal faith
– Feel one's life has always been
controlled by powerful others
– Unhappy in life (depressed, etc.)
– Strong need for approval by authority
figures
– Wish to be somebody else
Why Cover for Captors
Intuitive thinking: afraid for life and
safety--and actions were inspired by self
preservation.
Counter intuitive thinking: concerned
about what would have happened to
captor, whom she/he now counted on
for necessities of life.
Getting Help
• Psychotherapy
• Trauma therapy
• How can one gain an understanding of one’s
distorted thinking and confusing feelings about
being a hostage?
• How does one help the client to appropriately
direct her/his anger at her/his abuse?
• How does one help another to integrate the past
kidnapping with the present reality (to rewrite
history)?
• Others can also help. Some suggestions:
– Allow sufficient time and space to recover
– Show understanding and empathy
– Provide strong and consistent support groups
Lastly
• The Stockholm Syndrome is also known
as trauma or terror bonding
• More the exception, than the rule >>>
– According to a 2007 FBI report, 73%
of victims displayed no signs of such
affection for their abductors…
…still leaving a significant 27%...that did!
Stockholm Syndrome
Case Study: Patty Hearst
Mr. Noble
Psychology 1
LOHS
PATTY HEARST
BACKGROUND/CAPTURE
TRANSFORMATION
SHOWDOWN
FLIGHT
CAPTURE
TRIAL
OUTCOME
THE CONNECTION
William Randolph Hearst
Today, the Hearst Corporation owns
12 newspaper and 25 magazines
(including the popular Cosmopolitan),
and other media enterprises.
Hearst's 90,000 square foot castle at
San Simeon, California is a landmark,
and Orson Welles' classic film Citizen
Kane is thought to have been based
upon his life.
THE GROUP
1971: founded
Focused on prison reform, poverty, race.
Membership:
Mostly upper-middle-class disaffected Berkeley radicals
Leader: Donald DeFreeze, an escaped convict.
Alias "General Field Marshall Cinque Mtume"
“Symbionese“ - comes from the biological term symbiosis,
the interdependence of different species,
or the “Union of Classes and Races.”
Rhetoric/Manifesto:
Adopted from Communists & Sth American revolutionaries.
Names: Rejected given names for new, "revolutionary" names.
Symbol: Seven-headed cobra
Slogan: "Death to the fascist insect that preys on the life of
the people."
THE KIDNAPPING
UC BERKELEY
Feb. 4, 1974
19yrs old
Granddaughter of legendary newspaper publisher
Privately schooled. Living with former Math Tutor
~William Randolph Hearst
Kidnapped at gunpoint in apartment.
Two black men and one white woman abducted her.
Identified as members of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA).
Event generated sensational media coverage around the world.
THE PLAN
Attempt to swap Hearst for jailed SLA members failed.
SLA demanded that the captive's family distribute $70
worth of food to every needy Californian – an operation
that would cost an estimated $400 million
Hearst's father arranged immediate donation of $6 M of
food to the poor of the Bay Area.
After the distribution of food, the SLA refused to release
Hearst “food was poor quality.”
On April 3, 1974, Hearst announced on an audiotape that
she had joined the SLA and assumed the name “Tania”
TRANSFORMATION
“TANIA”
RELATIONSHIP
ALLEGIANCE
PARTICIPATION
• She was isolated and made to feel that no one
was going to rescue her.
• She was physically and sexually abused by various
members of the gang.
• She was told that she might die.
• She was fed lies about how the gang was
oppressed by the establishment.
• She was forced to record messages
that blasted those she loved.
ACTIONS
1973: SLA claims responsibility for the murder of Marcus Foster,
the first black superintendent of the Oakland school district.
According to the Los Angeles Times Magazine, the SLA
"mistakenly believed Foster wanted to require students to
show identification on campus, which it believed
analogous to a police-state tactic.“
SHOW DOWN
•May 17th, 1974, a two-hour gun battle between the
SLA and the LA police East 54th Street hideout.
•Eighteen requests to surrender were issued and
ignored before the first tear gas canister was
thrown.
•LA police ignited a fire that fatally trapped six
"soldiers.“
•9,000 rounds were fired.
•500 law enforcement officers descended on the
house.
•Drama televised.
SHOW DOWN
Three members shot as they tried to escape
Two succumbed:carbon monoxide poisoning
DeFreeze shot himself in the head
BROADCAST:
FLIGHT
"My gun was loaded," she claimed, "and at no time did
any of my comrades intentionally point their guns at me."
Their actions were justified to finance "the revolution."
She called her parents "pigs."
Dismissed her fiancé "As for being brainwashed, the idea
is ridiculous to the point of being beyond belief."
She ended by declaring that "I am a soldier of the people's
army."
ONE-YEAR ON THE RUN
BILL & EMILY HARRIS
FLIGHT
May 1974: Emily and William Harris, two SLA members, are
seen shoplifting at a Los Angeles sporting goods store. To
help them escape, Hearst fires at the store with a
submachine gun and a carbine from the window of a van
outside.
April 1975: During robbery, bank customer Myrna Lee
Opsahl is shot and killed. Hearst says Emily Harris
admitted to shooting her: "Oh, she's dead, but it doesn't
really matter. She was a bourgeois pig anyway."
ARREST & TRIAL
•
•
•
•
•
SEPT. 1975
F. Lee Bailey
25-life-JUD. REVIEW = 7YRS.
APPEAL SUPREME COURT FAILED
March 20, 1976.
Federal Correctional Institute
Pleasanton, California
Listed occupation as "Urban Guerilla"
Message through attorney: "Tell everybody that I'm
smiling, that I feel free and strong and I send my
greetings and love to all the sisters and brothers
out there.”
Served a little under 2 yrs @
Federal Correctional Institute
Pleasanton, California
OUTCOME
• 1979: Sentence commuted President Carter.
• Hearst became wife, mother, author (her own
account of the kidnapping and a mystery
novel).
• 2001: President Bill Clinton granted pardon.
Cognitive Dissonance
• Humans are sensitive to inconsistencies
between actions and beliefs.
• Recognition of this inconsistency will cause
dissonance, and will motivate an individual to
resolve the dissonance.
• Dissonance will be resolved in one of three
basic ways:
– Change beliefs
– Change actions
– Change perception of action