Stockholm syndrome or what some people call “capture bonding” is a psychological phenomenon where victims show positive feelings or emotional bonding with their captors. Sympathy and empathy are the common feelings expressed by these hostages. These feelings may last even after they are free from their captors. It is important to note that stockholm syndrome is not a disorder but a “survival mechanism” victims unconsciously use as an act of self-preservation. Stockholm syndrome is in some ways similar to the battered person syndrome.
Evolutionary psychologists explain that the stockholm syndrome can be linked back to our hunter-gatherer ancestors. They stated that women in those societies often faced the problem of being captured by another tribe. These women often had their children killed and they were put in several situations where their lives were at risk. By developing a bond to that tribe, they would ensure their survival. Because of the frequency of these abductions, capture-bonding developed into one of the adaptive traits in the human population. Evolutionary psychologists also believe that abductions and wars played a role in this.
The term stockholm syndrome originates from the incident at Kreditbanken bank in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1973. Two robbers broke into the bank, killed the police, and took four hostages. During the next six days, the hostages were trapped in a bank vault (often at gunpoint) and was strapped with bombs. However, what surprised the police was when they tried to rescue them, the hostages fended them off and defended their captors instead. Even after they’ve been freed, one of the hostages helped supported those robbers financially and thus, the term “Stockholm Syndrome” was created.
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... happy to ensure their survival. After doing this to a certain point, victims may start to oppose others trying to help them, similarly to how the victims of the case in Stockholm Sweden where the hostages refused help from the police. Victims may even turn against their family for fear that any contact with them would result in either violence or abuse to themselves or their family members. In some of the more serious cases, victims may even have a hard time leaving their abusers. Lastly, just like mentioned above, victims develop stockholm syndrome based on instincts as an act of self-preservation.
There are symptoms of stockholm syndrome are the victim showing positive emotions towards their captors and negative emotions towards the people trying to help them. They will be supportive towards their captors and supportive towards any trying to assist their release.
“Hostage survivors often develop an unconscious bond to their captors and experience grief if their captors are harmed”(NP). In some studies, they may also feel guilty for developing a bond. This type of behavior may typically be referred to as the Stockholm Syndrome. In Jaycee Dugard’s memoir, A Stolen Life, she doesn't mention and experience this syndrome in a downlow way. She doesn't confront it as well, but she does mention that she felt bad after he was arrested as well as her other abductor. When they went to the police station, her abductor told the police that she and the kids were his brother’s kids. When Dugard heard, she had the opportunity to rat him out and tell the police the truth, but instead she asked to speak to her uncle instead (A Stolen Life 208). She admits that they were kind of like a family to her and that is what horrifies her. Even though they did all this harm to her and basically took away eighteen years of her life, she was still thankful that they helped raise her two kids that her male abductor impregnated her with. Dugard also showed evidence of what the American Psychological Association mentioned about the emotion stress reaction. “I don't think I slept more than a few minutes that night. I had a terrible sinus headache from crying for several hours. Questions like: What if my mom doesn't accept the girls? What if my mom hates
Marianne Szegedy-Maszak, a senior writer at U.S. News and World, published her article, "The Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal: Sources of Sadism," in 2004. She uses the article to briefly overview the scandal as a whole before diving into what can trigger sadistic behavior. The Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal took place in 2004, wherein American troops humiliated and tortured Iraqi detainees (Szegedy-Maszak 75). The main objective of Szegedy-Maszak’s article is to investigate the causation behind sadistic behavior, exclusively in the Abu Ghraib Prison scandal. She effectively does so by gathering information and research from professional psychologists and professors of psychology, specifically Herbert Kelman and Robert Okin (Szegedy-Maszak 76). She finds
Sociopaths are prevalent among society, and some researchers, like Martha Stout, claim that one out of every twenty-five people is a sociopath. However, this statistic is incorrect. This statistic is based on the assumption that sociopaths and psychopaths are the same people—which is untrue. While the sociopathic and psychopathic traits overlap, sociopaths differ in that they are obviously nervous and agitated, unable to create the illusions that psychopaths are so proud of. They live on the fringes of society, uneducated and unable to keep a steady job. Psychopaths, unlike sociopaths, are suave and able to maintain an illusion of conformity and maintain relationships on a superficial level. Both, however, are dominantly male, tend to disregard the rights and social mores of others, and have a tendency display violent and disruptive outbursts without remorse. Unlike psychopaths, who completely lack remorse and the ability to love, sociopaths may attach themselves to certain people, though they still remain contemptuous of the rest of humanity (7).
Jack the Ripper, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, the Boston Strangler, Jeffrey Dahmer. Despite the years of history that separate these names, they remain indelibly preserved within our collective societal consciousness because of the massively violent and calculated nature of their crimes. Serial killers, both men and women, represent social monstrosities of the most terrifying variety. They are human predators, cannibals in a figurative and, often, literal sense, and are therefore uniquely subversive to society's carefully constructed behavioral tenets. They frighten because they are human in form but without the social conscience that, for many, defines humanity. They capture the public eye because they terrify, but also because they elicit a sort of gruesome curiosity about the human potential for evil; as Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde alleges, wickedness lies within each heart, waiting only for the proper time and impetus to break free.
Evidently, the act of engaging in criminal activity is based on choice. However, according to the Bond Gone Wrong Theory, the decision can be affected by social bond and self-control. With a strong social bond, comes over protection. If something were to harm or interfere with the strong bond, it may cause an individual to retaliate. However, with self-control the results may differ. Nevertheless, the Bond Gone Wrong Theory can be used in the future as a theory to better understand why some people commit crime rather than just labeling them or assuming that they’re all the same, killing or stealing for no reason.
Grounds (2004) contends that twelve of the men met criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Their symptoms are directly related to specific threats of extreme violence. Victims gave examples which included nightmares of assaults that occurred while incarcerated and panic attacks in response to police sirens. In sixteen cases, other psychiatric disorders were evident. Ten of them suffered from a type of depressive disorders, five had features of a panic disorder, four had symptoms of paranoia, and three had acquired a dependence on drugs and/or alcohol. In addition, chronic sleeping problems, moodiness, and irritability were increased in all cases. Exonerated victims are often suddenly release which creates problems with adjustment. Their functioning of practical tasks, such as using ATM’s or crossing busy roads, mandated humiliating struggles with coping. Adaptation to new physical surroundings creates tension because of the change in predictable and ordered prison cell environment. Friends and family report confusion about the victim’s withdrawal and avoidance of social contact. These individuals have often lost their sense of purpose. They may have lost their family, homes, and most importantly- hope. Coping with lost time involves managing circumstances that occurred during incarceration such as deaths, weddings, relating to their children, and cultural changes.
The disorder consists of two or more recognizable identities which change personality and appearance. Though there are as many as one hundred separate personalities, there are five different generalized alters (Swartz, 2001). These consist of a depressed personality, a strong and angry protector, a scared and hurt child personality, a helping personality, and finally an internal persecutor personality. Each one of these derives from traumatic childhood memories and allows the victims to act now as they could not act in the time of the traumatic experience. The depressive personality causes one to repress the harmful memories and have mood swings similar to bipolar disorder. This is common as it expresses the sadness they felt at the time but could not show. The strong angry protector is a result of the victim not being able to protect themselves from the disturbing situations endured, it allows them to express their true anger they could not before. The scared, hurt child shows tendencies such as mistrust, anxiety attacks, and substance abuse. It is commonly the most emotionally agonizing as it provokes the authentic memories. It challenges the individual to return to the feelings they felt during the trauma. The helping personality acts as a therapist as it tries to work through the intense emotions in the given context. This personality tries to make sense of the past and present circumstances in order to bring an inner peace by providing answers as to why the trauma may have taken place. The last personality, the internal prosecutor, blames the other personalities for the history of abuse. This personality may only be obtained if the patient is aware they have other personalities. It is often named after the oppressor or offe...
Attachment is described as the close emotional bond between two people and Attachment Theory (AT) generally concentrates on the early bonds in a person’s development as well as the effects that these bonds have on later socio-emotional development. While emphasis on attachment as an antecedent for future behavior and personality has decreased somewhat in recent years, it is interesting to note that the DSM IV-TR includes a “reactive attachment disorder” which it states is caused when extreme circumstances prevent proper attachment development.
...ontrol or possession of the victim, which gives them a sense of authority and power. This feeling alleviates their desires momentarily, but after the need builds up again, they will act upon violence again.
Rather than soothing each other in times of trouble, the detainees react to their circumstances by betraying each
Not all humans experience these life altering events in the same way. A combination of psychiatric and psychologic theories can be applied to the life of David Berkowitz form his violent experiences as a young adult to his neglect from mother figure throughout childhood. It can be said that a combination of these factors experienced throughout his life, led the Son of Sam killer to lash out his frustration on innocent victims in order to receive relief from a buildup of years of aggressive violent thoughts and
Dr. James L. Knoll director of forensic pshchiatry in University of New York Upstate Medical University said “ People want an easily graspable handle to help understand this, to blame somenthing or scapegoat.” This can be describe as a serious mental illnes, this suggest that it is a prime drive in a minority class abouth 20 percent. Experts have sugested that typical personality attribute in mass murderers is one of paranoid, plus disgruntlement.(Knoll) Another expert Dr.Micheal Stone of New York pshchiatry said “They want to die, but to bring many others down with them, wether co-workers, bosses, fammily or just plain folk who are in the vicinity. It is saied that this massmurders features is there belief that they had been
There have been many reports of serial killings across the globe. These sort of things are revolting and are disturbing to the normal person. But have you ever wondered why people do these despicable acts? What prompts these savage slaughters? Most people have wondered that very thing. There are even popular television shows based on this very topic. Well let me show you the inner workings that make these people tick.
There are many symptoms of depersonalization that patients with this disorder have to deal with. J.C. Dixon studied the symptoms of DPD and found many recurring ones that people explained they had. Examples of this were: other people seemed changed or unfamiliar, things a person was used to seemed strange, body seemed detached, no self- awareness, and no difference between self and not-self (Trueman 2). These are not the only symptoms, another one is a type of obsession, like OCD. A patient may resort to obsessing over their symptoms. They may keep looking at their hands to decide if they look any more or less real than an hour ago, or may repeatedly check hundre...
Many people with antisocial personality disorder are taught to have a lack of empathy in early childhood. There is a high number of serial killers with abusive pasts. Parents who abuse their children both mentally and physically at an early age are training their child to be cold and emotionless. Many killers suffered this fate at childhood and became heartless creatures with little to no remorse for their actions. In the article “What makes Serial Killers Tick?” it is said that Serial Killer Albert Desalvo was sold into slavery by his father and was sexually and physically abused for most of his you...