Conversation

Just thinking today about how the entire notion of "Stockholm Syndrome" was entirely made up to excuse the incompetence and violence of the cops threatening the hostages' lives.

> Nils Bejerot, the police psychiatrist involved in the siege, never spoke to Kristin directly, but he diagnosed her with a condition he invented. 

> "[Bejerot] made the assumption based purely on what he'd observed from an outsider's perspective, that they had a syndrome without there being any diagnostic criteria, without there being any type of study — and that's the basis upon which Stockholm syndrome is born." 

> "It's really easy to say, 'They must have Stockholm syndrome,' because it's comforting to think that there must be a syndrome that explains why victims act like this. And it's also a way of saying, 'I would never act like that.'" 

> "Stockholm syndrome became a way of silencing an indignant, angry, exhausted, courageous young woman who was speaking about the realities of the events from her point of view," he said.

> "It has nothing to do with the psychology of Kristin Enmark. It was a silencing strategy." 

> "The ideal hostage is a woman who keeps her mouth shut and thinks that the police are going to protect her," she said.

> "And when someone pops up like me, who says the opposite? You have to call it being unhealthy, insane, instead of looking at what the police did." 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-23/is-stockholm-syndrome-a-myth/102738084