Stockholm Syndrome

If you are held hostage by a robber or gangster, and a knife is on your neck, you must be afraid and hope to be rescued. But if the police really appear here to rescue you, with his gun pointed at the gangster, will you suddenly feel safe? When the gangster shakes the knife in his hand and shouts at the police, "Shoot, I will kill him," do you want the police to leave or save you?

This is a very interesting question and also a question that simulates a scenario. If you don’t put yourself in this situation, you may think without hesitation that you will be safe when the police come. But in fact, many people in this situation are afraid that the police will interfere with the robbers and cause them to lose control and hurt themselves. This is Stockholm syndrome.

Hostages will develop a sense of psychological dependence on their hijackers. Their lives and deaths were in the hands of their captors, and they were grateful to them for letting them live. They share the fate of the hijackers, regard the hijackers' future as their own, and regard the hijackers' safety as their own. So they adopted an "us against them" attitude and treated their rescuers as enemies.

The best treatment for Stockholm syndrome is psychotherapy. The Stockholm treatment must first help victims understand themselves and develop their personal potential. Help victims develop a positive mindset and not succumb to reality easily. Understand the perpetrator's weaknesses and wait for an opportunity to launch a defensive counterattack. Establish a system to restrict perpetrators from doing evil.

In fact, it is found that people who suffer from this disease all consider things from the perspective of a minority, such as the perspective of a robber. This is a process of reverse thinking, so the results of thinking are different from those of the general public. We will think that this is incorrect and is a disease, but what is correct? I think except for Buddha and God, no one else knows.