Stockholm Syndrome

Wikipedia:
Stockholm syndrome is a term used to describe a paradoxical psychological phenomenon wherein hostages express adulation and have positive feelings towards their captors that appear irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims.

Came across this term while getting some extended reading on hostage psychology. It is such an interesting phenomenon which has been consistently demonstrated in a series of kidnapping events. Well, as I previously mentioned, human emotion may partly (at least what I believe) be generated via a sequence of subconscious reflex neuroendocrine responses - its not hard to imagine such a biased and tilted affection to emerge, when somebody is put in a particular extreme situation.

But then what interests me is the psychoanalytic explanation of this syndrome: "a primitive gratitude for the gift of life". Personally I aint a keen advocate in the psychoanalytic/psychodynamic theory, but this illustration did ring me a bell on the citizens in North Korea.

The absolute dictatorship and complete information shutdown does not necessarily preclude the occurence of happiness in this country. In fact, when we magnifying our view, probably it is a reflection of millions of hostages under the sole control from the captive, who serves to provide the only source of basic needs. Indeed, somehow it fulfills the diagnostic criteria of Stockholm Syndrome:

• the captor becomes the person in control of the captive’s basic needs for survival and the victim’s life itself
• the hostage endures isolation from other people and has only the captor’s perspective available
• the hostage taker threatens to kill the victim and gives the perception of having the capability to do so
• the captive sees the perpetrator as showing some degree of kindness

Umm. I start to appreciate Freud.