-- Posted by iBritt at 8:30 pm on July 29, 2008 Recently, I have become fascinated with this "mental disability." Stockholm Syndrome is a disorder where a hostage starts feeling sympathetic towards the abductor, and in some cases, the victim even falls in love with the abductor although they have obviously forced them to do some act against their will and treated them wrongly. Can you imagine having that amount of control over someone? To brutalize them, hurt them over and over again, and then, due to some random acts of kindness, they're in love with you? What about the victim, being under that mind control? How does it work? I couldn't ever do that to anyone in the first place, though.  I've never--I am rarely a violent person, but I can easily see myself submitting to someone like that.  Easily, and that scares me. -- Posted by the raven at 8:31 pm on July 29, 2008 I have always told myself that if I am ever kidnapped or raped, I will fake Stockholm Syndrome for the benefit of it probably saving my life. Hopefully, probably* is what I meant. I've watched a few documentaries on captives that have used Stockholm Syndrome faking to their advantage. -- Posted by Apotheosis at 8:32 pm on July 29, 2008 it's not that difficult to produce or exploit, if you can get viable alternatives to kidnapping that produce similar situations -- Posted by iBritt at 8:36 pm on July 29, 2008 Quote: from The Raven at 11:31 pm on July 29, 2008 I have always told myself that if I am ever kidnapped or raped, I will fake Stockholm Syndrome for the benefit of it probably saving my life. Oh my gosh, I was watching dateline, and this one girl did that, and it saved her life. She was 14, and the guy picked her up from her bus stop, saying that he was a police officer, and her brother was in trouble. Well, he kept her in this underground bunker and sexually abused her for 10 days.  She could hear the searchers foot steps above her, looking for her, but she couldn't scream or anything 'cause he would kill her. She pretended that she was in love with him and that she wanted him. Well, she would steal his phone at night and try to send text messages to her mom, and one of those messages actually reached her mom.  The guy had a TV in his bunker, and it was all over the news, and she kept saying that they were coming for him and that she thought he should leave because she didn't want him to get hurt or whatever, and she just played him.  It worked, and he left, and she got away, and he was caught. Happy ending. -- Posted by HuffleHaire at 8:44 pm on July 29, 2008 I like Muse's Stockholm Syndrome. I can see myself submitting to something like that. If not accidentally but in order to save my life, like said above. I've always been fascinated by the concept. -- Posted by Silence of Thought at 4:50 pm on July 30, 2008 I'm no psychologist, but I made a couple of theories for why some people are affected by the Stockholm Syndrome: -When a hostage is kept in isolation for so long, the captor becomes the only mean of human contact for him/her. Therefore, the victim might become attached to the captor: the nicer the victim is, the more communication he/she gets. It's like the "I wouldn't ___ if you were the last person on Earth" scenario (reversed, of course). -The hostage, in an attempt to rationalize his/her situation, might begin to like the captor because the captor is in a way his/her savior. The hostage is in a very vulnerable state, so if the hostage is alive, he/she might personify the captor as someone who is protecting him/her. And of course, most people would like a person who is protecting them. -- Posted by libertine at 3:55 pm on Aug. 3, 2008 Why the hell is it a "disability" or "disorder". If someone takes me hostage, sure i'm gonna be pissed off at them, but if I find out that their cause is noble and actually they're a really great person, and it's really nothing personal, why am I suddenly mentally disabled if I decide I like them? -- Posted by exceedinglyrare at 6:43 pm on Aug. 3, 2008 Quote: from Just another kid at 6:55 pm on Aug. 3, 2008 Why the hell is it a "disability" or "disorder". If someone takes me hostage, sure i'm gonna be pissed off at them, but if I find out that their cause is noble and actually they're a really great person, and it's really nothing personal, why am I suddenly mentally disabled if I decide I like them? That wouldn't be Stockholm Syndrome. That would be logically and reasonably changing your mind. The difference is that Stockholm Syndrome isn't logical. -- Posted by sophos at 10:33 am on Aug. 5, 2008 Stockholm Syndrome is nothing more than a psychological defence mechanism that eventually gets confused with genuine emotions. Survival instincts gone awry. -- Posted by Uruz 7 at 8:05 pm on Aug. 5, 2008 Quote: from iBritt at 11:36 am on July 30, 2008 Quote: from The Raven at 11:31 pm on July 29, 2008 I have always told myself that if I am ever kidnapped or raped, I will fake Stockholm Syndrome for the benefit of it probably saving my life.     Oh my gosh, I was watching dateline, and this one girl did that, and it saved her life. She was 14, and the guy picked her up from her bus stop, saying that he was a police officer, and her brother was in trouble. Well, he kept her in this underground bunker and sexually abused her for 10 days. She could hear the searchers foot steps above her, looking for her, but she couldn't scream or anything 'cause he would kill her. She pretended that she was in love with him and that she wanted him. Well, she would steal his phone at night and try to send text messages to her mom, and one of those messages actually reached her mom. The guy had a TV in his bunker, and it was all over the news, and she kept saying that they were coming for him and that she thought he should leave because she didn't want him to get hurt or whatever, and she just played him. It worked, and he left, and she got away, and he was caught. Happy ending. Hats off to you . . Could'nt be done any better . . To be able to endure that long and still be able to keep her mind, thats a feat few can perform. . . But anyways, I've heard that it happens in some ways because the perpetrator is actually doing something about whatever thing they are unhappy with, and not to mention, they themselves have been hurt in order for them to resort to such action. I could imagine sympathizing with a murderer despite the fact that I know its an outright insane reaction - but the person is still human, if we were to go through the exact same things they did in life, we may understand why they did such a thing . . Thats when sympathy comes in. . -- Posted by ElephantStone at 2:53 am on Oct. 20, 2008 Its interesting, because a lot of those girls that have been abducted and trapped in basements and raped over and over for years - e.g. that french girl several years ago and more recently that girl from Austria. They form close emotional bonds with those men, and very often the two end up sharing life secrets. I remember in the novel 'Black Beauty' there was an intriguing paragraph of how one develops a fondness for the tormentor.