Stockholm Syndrome. Victim paradoxes
The phenomenon, which was called the "Stockholm Syndrome" in connection with the well-known events in Stockholm in August 1973, is indeed considered paradoxical, and the attachment of some hostages to their kidnappers is irrational. What is really going on?
STOCKHOLM SYNDROME - a paradoxical reaction of affection and sympathy, arising from the victim in relation to the aggressor.
The phenomenon, which the Swedish forensic scientist Nils Beyerot, in connection with the well-known events in Stockholm in August 1973, called the "Stockholm Syndrome", is really considered paradoxical, and the attachment of some hostages to the kidnappers is irrational. At first glance, this is how it is, because we outwardly observe a situation when a person is emotionally attached to someone whom (according to all the rules of common sense) he should hate. This is the so-called psychological paradox, which in fact is not, but is a completely natural way of adaptation to extreme conditions of people with a certain set of vectors. They will be discussed further after a short description of the events that gave the name "Stockholm Syndrome" to this phenomenon.
Stockholm, 1973
On August 23, 1973, a certain Jan Ulsson, a former prisoner, broke into the Kreditbanken bank in Stockholm with a gun and took the bank's employees - three women and a man - as well as one bank client hostage. When two policemen tried to storm the bank, Ulsson wounded one of them, and the other was also taken hostage, but soon released along with the client. At the request of Ulsson, his friend-cellmate Clark Olofsson was taken from the prison to the bank premises.
Having put forward their demands to the authorities, Ulsson and Olofsson closed with the four prisoners in the bank's armored vault with an area of 3 x 14 m, where they were held for six days. These days were very difficult for the hostages. At first, they were forced to stand with a noose around their necks, which strangled them when trying to sit down. The hostages did not eat for two days. Ulsson constantly threatened to kill them.
But soon, to the surprise of the police, the hostages developed an incomprehensible attachment to the kidnappers. The captive bank manager Sven Sefström, after the hostages were released, spoke of Ulsson and Olofsson as very good people, and during the release, together with everyone, he tried to protect them. One of the hostages, Brigita Lunberg, having the opportunity to escape from the seized building, chose to stay. Another hostage, Christina Enmark, told the police by phone on the fourth day that she wanted to leave with the kidnappers, as they were very good friends. Later, two women said that they voluntarily entered into intimate relationships with criminals, and after their release from captivity, they became engaged to them at all, without even waiting for their release from prison (one of the girls was married and divorced her husband). Although this unusual relationship was never developed further,But Olofsson, after his release from prison, was friends for a long time with women and their families.
When considering this case from the point of view of system-vector psychology, the description of the hostages' appearance immediately catches the eye:
- Brigita Lunberg is a spectacular blonde beauty;
- Christina Enmark - energetic, cheerful brunette;
- Elizabeth Aldgren - petite blonde, modest and shy;
- Sven Sefström is a bank manager, confident, tall, handsome bachelor.
The first two girls, who, in fact, fell in love for a short time with their tormentors, are clearly the owners of the skin-visual ligament of vectors. The same can be said about the bank's manager Sven Sefström and, most likely, the third employee, Elizabeth Oldgren.
Invaders Jan Ullson and Clark Olofsson are undoubtedly sound people, as evidenced by their behavior during the capture, biography, appearance. Based on this, it is easy to understand why such a warm attitude of the captured to the invaders formed so quickly and was so strong. The sound and visual are vectors from the same quartet, like a patrician and a matrix, complementing each other, while the viewer unconsciously gravitates towards the sound engineer of the same development as to the “big brother” in the quartet. The sound engineer hears at night when the spectator does not see - this is the basis of their relationship in figurative expression.
A hostage with a visual vector (even a developed one) is able to fall from severe stress into archetypal fear and, due to the equality of internal states, can unconsciously reach for an injured psychopathic sound specialist. If the aggressor is a more developed, ideological sound person, then the visual person seems to be pulled up to his level of development and at this level begins to interact with him (for example, adopting his ideas, considering them his own). For this reason, the most striking manifestations of the Stockholm syndrome are found precisely during political terrorist attacks, which, as a rule, are not committed by anyone except ideological or psychopathic sound specialists.
At the same time, this factor of vector complementarity, although it took place during the events in Stockholm, became only a catalyst, and not the main reason for the sympathy of visual victims to their sound invaders. The main reason is the presence of cutaneous-visual ligaments of vectors in the victims, which, as already mentioned, determines a certain way of their adaptation to super-stress conditions - through the creation of an emotional connection.
Skin-visual woman
In primitive times, women with a cutaneous-visual ligament of vectors performed the species role of daytime guards. They were the only women who went hunting with the men. Their task was to notice the danger in time and warn the others about it. So, frightened by the predator, the skin-visual woman experienced the strongest fear of death and exuded the pheromones of fear. Unconsciously feeling this smell, her fellow tribesmen immediately fled. If she noticed the predator late, then because of her strong smell she was the first to fall into his paws. So it was on the hunt. And in a primitive cave, a flock in certain cases could sacrifice a dermal-visual female.
As we know from systems-vector psychology, early life scenarios are fundamental to our behavior. This means that they do not disappear anywhere in the development process, but become the basis for a new round of it. The visual vector in the face of the skin-visual woman also gradually developed from a state of fear into a state of love. In military and hunting trips, observing the injuries and deaths of men, she gradually learned to shift the oppressive fear for her own life on them, turn it into compassion for the wounded and the dead, and thus feel no longer fear, but compassion and love. At the same time, like any other woman (especially with a skin vector), she sought to receive protection and provision from men, in return giving them the opportunity to happen to themselves. These two components formed the basis forwhat is called sex today, the creator of which is the skin-visual woman. Sex differs from simple animal mating in the presence of an emotional bond between a man and a woman. In humans, unlike animals, it is accompanied by strong emotions.
In later, historical times, when the specific role of daytime guards of the pack was no longer needed, skin-visual women continued to go with men to war already as nurses, where they showed their ability to compassion to a much greater extent and already without entering intimate communications to ensure their safety. On the contrary, in history there are many facts of self-sacrifice of such women, which testifies to their much higher development in their visual vector in comparison with prehistoric skin-visual females. These women were already capable not only of an emotional connection, but also of high feelings, of love.
Developing a relationship between the skin-visual victim and the aggressor
Naturally, for any person, a sudden and real danger to his life is over-stress. And overstress, as it is known in system-vector psychology, is capable of throwing into the early archetypal programs even a person who is maximally developed in his vectors, from where he will have to climb up again. This also applies to the cutaneous and visual vectors.
In the skin vector, the first reaction to the appearance of people waving weapons is a strong loss of a sense of balance with the external environment, in the visual one - a wild fear for their own life. At this stage, the skin-visual woman is not capable of anything other than demonstrating submission and a huge release of fear pheromones into the air, which only infuriates the aggressor and does not give the victim any special confidence in preserving her life.
But then the victim begins to unconsciously look for opportunities to come into some kind of balance with the external environment, and here she has nothing to rely on, except on her innate mental properties (vectors). She shows flexibility and adaptability in the skin vector, and also unconsciously builds a visual emotional connection with the aggressor, showing sympathy for him, while clinging to the most incredible and far-fetched confirmations that the aggressor is "good", giving many rational explanations why this is so (“He is tough, but just,” “he is fighting for a just cause,” “life forced him to become such,” etc.). At the same time, she seeks protection from him like a man. That is, it acts in accordance with the early scenario of the skin-visual female.
In unusual conditions, accordingly, an unusual thought is formed, providing a desire to preserve oneself.
And even after the stressful situation has exhausted itself, these emotions remain, since they give the recent victim a feeling of visual joy, which she (unconsciously) does not want to exchange for hatred of the person who caused her so much trouble. Thus, even after many years, the criminal is remembered as a “good person”.
Other examples
On December 17, 1998, the Japanese Embassy in Peru was seized by terrorists during a reception on the occasion of the birthday of the Emperor of Japan. Terrorists, representatives of the extremist organization Tupac Amar Revolutionary Movement, captured 500 high-ranking guests who arrived at the reception and demanded that about 500 of their supporters be released from prison.
Two weeks later, in order to facilitate control over the hostages, half of them were released. To everyone's surprise, the freed hostages began to make public statements that the terrorists were right and their demands were just. Moreover, they said that, being in captivity, they not only sympathized with the terrorists, but hated and feared those who could go to storm the building. The sonic Nestor Kartollini, the leader of the terrorists, was also very warmly spoken of. Canadian businessman Kieran Matkelf, after he was released, said that Cartollini was "a polite and educated person, dedicated to his work" (polite, educated - verbal keywords that give Matkelf a visual vector; dedicated to his work - a skin a businessman does not have a skin vector?).
Another incident took place in Austria. A young girl Natasha Maria Kampusch in 1998 was kidnapped by a certain Wolfgang Priklopil, who put her in his basement and kept her there for 8 years. Having more than one opportunity to escape, she still preferred to stay. The first attempt at her escape was successful. Priklopil, not wanting to go to jail for the crime, committed suicide, and Natasha then spoke very warmly of him in numerous interviews, said that he was very kind to her and she would pray for him.
Natasha did not dare to run away, because over the years of isolation, all the visual (emotional) and skin (masochistic) content of her vectors was concentrated on the only person with whom she contacted.
Conclusion
Naturally, all the described mental processes are deeply unconscious. None of the victims understands the real motives of their own behavior, implements their behavioral programs unconsciously, obeying algorithms of actions that suddenly arise from the depths of the subconscious. The natural inner aspiration of a person to feel safety and security tries to take his own in any, even the most severe conditions, and uses any resources for this (including the one who creates these harsh conditions). It uses it, without asking us about anything and almost in no way harmonizing it with our common sense. Needless to say that such unconscious behavioral programs do not always work effectively in non-standard conditions, such as, for example, the same hostage-taking or abduction (as in the story with Natasha Kampush,who lost 8 years of her life due to the inability to give up emotional attachment to her tormentor).
There are many cases when hostages, the first to see the police storming the building, warned terrorists about the danger and even covered them with their bodies. Often terrorists hid among the hostages, and no one betrayed them. At the same time, such dedication is usually one-sided: the invader, who in most cases does not have any developed visual vector, does not feel the same in relation to the captured, but simply uses it to achieve his goals.
