Editing Stockholm syndrome (section)

==Background ==
{{Main|Norrmalmstorg robbery}}

In 1973, [[Jan-Erik Olsson]], a convict on parole, took four employees (three women and one man) hostage during a failed bank robbery of [[Kreditbanken]], one of the largest banks in [[Stockholm]]. He negotiated for his friend [[Clark Olofsson]] to be released from prison to assist him. They held the hostages captive for six days (23–28 August) in one of the bank's vaults.

[[Nils Bejerot]], a Swedish [[criminologist]] and [[psychiatrist]], invented the term after the [[Swedish Police|Stockholm police]] asked him for assistance with analyzing the victims' reactions to the robbery and their status as hostages. Bejerot never met, spoke to, or corresponded with the hostages, during or after the incident, yet diagnosed them with a condition he invented. Bejerot, speaking on "a news cast after the captives' release", described the hostages' reactions as a result of being [[brainwashing|brainwashed]] by their captors.<ref name="Adorjan_2012" /> He called it ''Norrmalmstorgssyndromet'' (after Norrmalmstorg Square where the attempted robbery took place), meaning "The Norrmalm Square syndrome"; it later became known outside Sweden as Stockholm syndrome.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Bejerot N |title=The six day war in Stockholm |journal=New Scientist |date=1974 |volume=61 |issue=886 |pages=486–487 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YGQBmUNfJ3IC&pg=PA486 }}</ref> Many years earlier (in 1980),{{Clarify|date=March 2026|reason=1980 is not years earlier than 1973.}} psychiatrist [[Frank Ochberg]] wrote about the status of the hostages held in the American embassy in Tehran and suggested that [[transference]] might aid the management of hostage situations.<ref>{{cite news |vauthors=Ochberg F |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-apr-08-oe-ochberg8-story.html |title=The Ties That Bind Captive to Captor |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=8 April 2005}}</ref>

According to accounts by Kristin Enmark, one of the hostages, the authorities were careless, and their initial approach to the robbers nearly compromised the hostages' safety.<ref name="JessHill">{{cite book |last=Hill |first=Jess |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KdnyDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT82 |title=See What You Made Me Do: Power, Control and Domestic Abuse |date=June 24, 2019 |publisher=Black Inc. |isbn=978-1743820865 |page=}}</ref> Enmark criticized Sweden's prime minister, [[Olof Palme]], for endangering their lives. Palme believed that if Olsson saw one of his close relatives, he might be willing to surrender the hostages; however, the police made a careless mistake. They misidentified Olsson, and sent a 16-year-old boy who was unrelated into the bank. This caused confusion and resulted in Olsson firing rounds at the boy who barely escaped. Olsson became much more agitated in general. After that, Enmark and the other three hostages were fearful that they were just as likely to be killed by police incompetence as by the robbers.<ref name=dubious /><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://sverigesradio.se/artikel/6270898 |title=Lyssna på Kristin Enmark prata med Olof Palme under gisslandramat |last=Westcott |first=Kathryn | name-list-style = vanc |date=22 August 2013|work=[[BBC News]] |access-date=2015-10-05 |language=sv-SV}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Enmark |first=Kristin |date=2020 |title=Jag blev Stockholmssyndromet |location=Stockholm |publisher=SAGA Egmont |isbn=978-9185785964 }}</ref> Ultimately, Enmark explained she was more afraid of the police, whose attitude seemed to be a much larger, direct threat to her life than the robbers.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |date=2013-08-21 |title=What is Stockholm syndrome? |language=en-GB |work=[[BBC News]] |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22447726 |access-date=2023-09-05}}</ref> Enmark spent decades maintaining that she had no affinity for her captors; she only did what it took to stay alive during the ordeal.<ref name="dubious">{{cite news |last1=Armitage |first1=Rebecca |title=Is Stockholm syndrome a myth? The terrifying crime behind psychology's most famous — and dubious — term |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-23/is-stockholm-syndrome-a-myth/102738084 |access-date=15 August 2025 |agency=ABC News |issue=August 22, 2023}}</ref>

Olsson later said in an interview that he could have easily killed the hostages in the beginning, but over time it became more difficult, as he developed an emotional bond with them:<ref name=":1" />

{{blockquote |text=They made it hard to kill. They made us go on living together day after day, like goats, in that filth. There was nothing to do but get to know each other.}}

=== Patty Hearst ===
{{Main|Patty Hearst}}

Patty Hearst, the granddaughter of publisher [[William Randolph Hearst]], was taken and held hostage by the [[Symbionese Liberation Army]], "an urban guerrilla group", in 1974. She was recorded denouncing her family as well as the police using her new name, "Tania", and was later seen working with the SLA to rob banks in San Francisco. She publicly asserted her "sympathetic feelings" toward the SLA and their pursuits as well. After her 1975 arrest, pleading Stockholm syndrome (although the term was not used yet, due to the recency of the event) was inadequate as a defense in court, much to the chagrin of her defense lawyer [[F. Lee Bailey]]. Her seven-year prison sentence was later commuted, and she was eventually pardoned by President [[Bill Clinton]], who was informed that she was not acting of her own free will.<ref name="Adorjan_2012"/>