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68 FBI L. Enforcement Bull. 22 (1999)
Placing the Stockholm Syndrome in Perspective

handle is hein.journals/fbileb68 and id is 228 raw text is: Placing the Stockholm Syndrome in Perspective By G. DWAYNE FUSELIER, Ph.D. On an August morning in 1973, an escaped convict took four bank employees hostage in Stockholm, Sweden. For 131 hours, the hostages shared a bank vault with another convicted criminal, the former cellmate of the hostage taker, who had demanded his release from a nearby peniten- tiary. Despite their ordeal, after the incident, the hostages reported that they had no ill feelings toward the hostage takers and, further, that they feared the police more than their captors. Psychologists called this newly discovered phenomenon the Stockholm Syndrome. A coping mechanism also known as the Survival Identifica- tion Syndrome, the Common Sense Syndrome, or, simply, transference, the Stockholm Syndrome usually consists of three components that may occur separately or in combi- nation with one another: negative feelings on the part of the hostage toward authorities, positive feelings on the part of the hostage toward the hostage taker, and positive feelings reciprocated by the hostage taker toward the hostage.2 Although a recognized phenomenon, during the last 25 years, the Stockholm Syn- drome has been overemphasized, overanalyzed, overpsychologized, and overpublicized. Those occa- sions where the Stockholm Syn- drome actually occurs remain ex- ceptions to the rule. In fact, most hostages do not identify or sym- pathize with the hostage taker, nor do they see the police as their 22 / FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin

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