2023-08-23 16:02:20
Fifty years ago, on August 23, 1973, a hostage taking in the Swedish capital would give its name to Stockholm syndrome. Half a century later, the pathological nature of this condition, which is characterized by feeling sympathy for one’s captor, remains debated among the scientific community.
The 1973 hostage taking
On August 23, 1973, Jan-Erik Olsson, recently released from prison, robbed a bank. Faced with the intervention of the police, the kidnapper decides to keep four people hostage as a bargaining chip.
He thus obtained the release of his cellmate, Clark Olofsson, who joined him at the site of the hostage-taking. The two men and their four hostages took refuge in the establishment’s vault.
The day after the hostage-taking began, the police chief negotiated a meeting with them in the basement to check on their good health. He realizes that the three women and the man kidnapped are sympathetic towards their captors and show a certain hostility towards him.
Hostility towards the police
During the six days of negotiations, the hostages and the kidnappers develop mutual sympathy. The hostages worry about a potential police assault that could turn into a fatal outcome for their lives.
The police finally managed to free the hostages by breaking into the safe room and sending tear gas into the vault on August 28. Surprisingly, the hostages refuse to come out, for fear that their two captors will be shot next. One of the hostages, Kristin Ehnmark, aged 23, then demanded that the two men pass, which the police eventually agreed to.
During negotiations by telephone, this Swede regularly defends her captors, in particular the second kidnapper, Clark Olofsson. In the documentary The day Stockholm became a syndromeshe considers that he has ” save the life, (son) psychological balance » against Jan-Erik Olsson who “didn’t give a fuck (hostages) ».
When leaving, warm embraces between the detainees and their tormentors astonish the police. After the arrest of the two kidnappers, certain hostages visited them in prison, refused to testify against them and contributed to cover the costs of their defense. The young Kristin Ehnmark even began a romantic relationship with Clark Olofsson for a while.
Identification to the aggressor
Nils Bejerot, a psychiatrist who acted as a consultant during the hostage-taking, describes the feeling of sympathy, even love, for his captor, the « Stockholm syndrome ». Already theorized a few years ago by other researchers as a syndrome “identification with the aggressor”, this phenomenon could be explained by an unconscious manifestation of survival. By attracting the sympathy of his attacker, the victim hopes to be able to save his life. However, if this syndrome occupies a prominent place in culture, it is almost non-existent in scientific literature.
In 2008, researchers looked into this alleged syndrome in a study titled “Stockholm syndrome: psychiatric diagnosis or urban myth? »published in the journal Acta psychiatrica scandinavica.
With only twelve scientific studies identifying the criteria for Stockholm syndrome, scientists believe that one “ambiguity in the use of the term” persists and“no validated diagnostic criteria have been described”.
Stockholm syndrome does not appear in the international classification of diseases (ICD-10) published by the World Health Organization, observe the researchers. According to them, this syndrome is more a media construction than a real medical diagnosis. In fact, many works of fiction feature such a scenario, like the Spanish series The Money Heistthe James Bond episode The world is not enough (1999) or even the musical Starmania.
Defense mechanism
Generally speaking, women known to have developed Stockholm syndrome associate their behavior with a survival strategy rather than with a true pathological state, as explained by Natascha Kampusch, a young Austrian woman held captive for more than eight years.
Likewise, Kristin Enmark has always refuted having been a victim of Stockholm syndrome, explaining that it was above all the counter-productivity of the police in 1973, increasing the aggressiveness of Jan-Erik Olsson, which would be at the origin of his sympathy for his attackers.
For Cecilia Åse, professor of political science at Stockholm University and specialist in gender issues, the concept hides a political dimension. According to the professor, “Stockholm syndrome is an invented concept” to hide the failure of the State to protect captives in 1973. Fifty years later, the question of the diagnosis and pathology of Stockholm syndrome therefore still remains unanswered.
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