The term "Stockholm syndrome" originally characterized only the psychological state of the hostages, in which they begin to sympathize with the invaders. Later this term received a wider application and was used to denote the victim's attraction to the aggressor in general.
Hostage Syndrome or Stockholm Syndrome
The Stockholm Syndrome received its name from criminalist Niels Bijerot, who used it in his analysis of the situation of hostage-taking in Stockholm in 1973. It was about a couple of recidivists who had seized a man and three women and for five days kept them in a bank, threatening their lives.
The phenomenon was revealed when hostages were released. Suddenly, the victims took the side of the invaders and even tried to prevent the policemen who came to carry out the rescue operation. After the criminals went to jail, the victims requested amnesties for them and supported them. One of the hostages divorced her husband and swore allegiance to the invader, who threatened her life for those long and terrible five days. In the future, two hostages became engaged to the invaders.
It was possible to explain the extraordinary results of what happened to the forensics. The victims gradually began to identify themselves with the invaders during an extended stay in the same territory with the kidnappers. Initially, this option is a protective mental mechanism that allows you to believe that the invaders will not cause harm.
When the rescue operation begins, the situation again becomes dangerous: now it is not only the invaders that can harm, but also the liberators, even if they are imprudent. That is why the victim takes the most "safe" position - cooperation with the invaders.
The sentence lasted five days - during this time involuntarily there is communication, the victim recognizes the criminal, her motives become close to it. Because of stress, the situation can be perceived as a dream, in which everything is reversed, and rescuers in this perspective can really seem to cause all problems.
Household Stockholm syndrome
Nowadays Stockholm syndrome in family relations is often found. Usually in such a marriage a woman suffers violence from her husband, testing the same strange sympathy for the aggressor as hostages to the invaders. Similar relationships can develop between parents and children.
As a rule, the Stockholm syndrome is observed in people and thinking of the "victim". As a child, they lack parental caress and care, they see that other children in the family love much more. Because of this, they form a belief that they are second-rate people, always attracting troubles that do not deserve anything good. Their behavior is based on the idea: the less you talk to the aggressor, the less outbursts of his anger. As a rule, the victim is not in a position not to forgive the tyrant, and
Help with the Stockholm syndrome
If we consider the Stockholm syndrome within the framework of family relations (this is the most common case), then the woman, as a rule, hides her problems from others, and seeks the cause of her husband's aggression in herself. When they try to help her, she takes the side of the aggressor - her husband.
Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to force such a person to help. Only when a woman herself realizes the real damage from her marriage, realizes the illogicality of her actions and the futility of her hopes, she will be able to abandon the role of the victim. However, without the help of a therapist, achieving success will be difficult, so it is very important to consult a specialist, and the earlier, the better.