Falling For Your Kidnapper
When Patty Hearst, granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst, was kidnapped in 1974 by people who called themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army, she was kept in a tiny closet for two weeks, blindfolded, and was physically and sexually abused.
It’s claimed by some that only those people who are not physically nor mentally mistreated are likely to show signs of Stockholm Syndrome, but clearly this can’t be the case. Hearst made it very clear that she supported this Liberation Army and its terrorist aims. Obviously, she was falling for her kidnappers fairly early on.
Further, she even sported a terrorist name; Tania.
Naturally, being physically abused could well turn some people against their captors, but the assertion that physical mistreatment affects everyone, certainly can’t be true.
The F.B.I.’s Hostage Barricade Database System shows that roughly 27% of people kidnapped and held for a protracted period of time show signs of Stockholm Syndrome. So what is this strange Syndrome and why do people become affected by it?
Basically, it’s a type of brainwashing. Bear in mind that when a person’s kidnapped or held hostage, their emotions are extremely strong and in a state of chaos. All of a sudden, their lives are turned upside down. One minute, they’re going about their daily routine, the next, they’re whisked off at gunpoint, or carried out of their house or workplace, thrown into a van or car, and taken to somewhere completely foreign to them. All this in a very short space of time.
Whether they like it or not, they’ve been made to feel a strong emotional connection to the person or people who’ve treated them in this way. From there, it can weld a connection between the victim and his or her captors.
Now, we saw in one of our articles about phobias, how some people can have an abject fear of buttons. This can be effected if a mother sees her little child just about to ‘eat’ a button. Terrified that he or she will swallow the object, she screams at them, leaps across the room and snatches it from their grasp. The child may well grow up to have a terror of buttons.
Do you remember when we discussed two people meeting high above ground on a swinging rope bridge? How they both misattribute their wildly beating hearts to attraction rather than fear? In just the same way, the person who has power over us we misinterpret as being important.
It all comes down to misplaced feelings. Once someone is in the power of their captor(s), they do all they can to please these people, since they feel their very lives are at stake, which they may well be. As the days drag by and they find themselves still alive, they’re left with an intense relationship, although unasked for. So, they may be falling for their kidnapper.
As time progresses even further, this may well turn the captive’s mind into a sympathetic frame, even into a twisted form of ‘love.’
Mike Bond, and I’m going a little deeper into the explanation of the Stockholm Syndrome. Please do visit my Website. Really, there’s so much of interest for you, not to mention two excellent free downloads. All by a single click, you’ll be taken to http://www.wealthyoldman.com, where I know you’ll enjoy yourself