BEHAVIORAL STOCKHOLM SYNDROME

June 16th, 2018

This episode references episode 57 entitled Compass.  If you’d like to fully understand the reference, please listen to that episode first.

In 1973 four people were taken hostage during a bank robbery in Stockholm Sweden.  Due to some strange avenue of human nature, these hostages developed feelings of trust and adoration for their captors and refused to testify against them in court. 

The hostages grew fond of their captors.

There is a fashionable and sexy trend to ‘own a problem’ by wearing it like a badge.

In order to solve a problem, it must first be identified, yes.  But to end with this identification is to stay focused on the problem and risk over-identifying with the problem. This is not owning a problem and solving it, this is the Stockholm syndrome grafted onto a set of behaviors.  This is confusing a problem with a sense of identity and growing to love the problem because we hope to love ourselves and fail to differentiate between the two.

If humans are capable of developing positive feelings towards others who have taken them captive by force. . .

is it really much of a stretch to think we’re capable of developing positive feelings for bad ideas that hold us captive?

Is it possible that we are capable of achieving this self-destructive acrobatic merely because it’s easier?  Identifying with a problem and loving it, wearing that problem as an identity calls for no further action. 

As in every case, we must use our COMPASS to determine whether we are acting productively.

Does it evoke fear to identify a problem and accept it, and even love it?  How does it feel to honestly face a problem and begin the uncertain process of attempting to solve it with actions that may fail?