August, 1973. A man named Jan-Erik Olsson, who was on furlough from prison where he was facing a 3 year sentence, suddenly disappears and decides to rob the ‘Sveriges Kreditbanken’, a Swedish bank in Norrmalmstorg square, Stockholm. He barge in the bank and holds 4 people as hostages. Sounds like a classic robbery fiction; one like the famous Netflix Spanish series called ‘La casa de papel’, well-known by its English title “Money Heist”. But I can guarantee you that this one is even better! Not only this is a true story, it is also the 1st ever criminal event in Sweden that was broadcasted live on Television. This bank robbery is attributed with the origin of the term “Stockholm Syndrome”. Some of you who have seen the ‘Money Heist’ might find this term familiar, since it was used time to time in the series. This article is divided into 2 sections; in the first section we will look the extra-ordinary robbery and in the second section we will go through some facts and assumptions regarding the infamous ‘Stockholm syndrome.
The Robbery
Jan-Erik Olsson enters the bank with a loaded sub-machine gun and in the process, he injures one police officer, who rushed to the bank immediately after receiving the alarm call. Olsson holds 4 hostages, whom he locked in the vault. The demands of Olsson were: 700,000$ in Swedish and other foreign currencies, a car as fast as possible, 2 bullet-proof jackets, 2 guns, and the release of his cell-mate Clark Oloffson, who was still in prison. Due to the pressure and media coverage, police bought Oloffson, the ransom and a blue ford mustang within hours. Oloffson rejoined his cell mate and they both stayed inside. Police firmly denied their demand to leave with hostages. This forced them to stay in side for a very long period of time. The hijackers made contact with the outside many times and on one occasion they allowed police commissioner to come in and check the hostages. What the commissioner said after coming out startled people all around the world. The chief stated that he thinks the hijackers will not harm the any hostage and the hostages seem to have developed some kind of strange relationship with their abductors. This news spread quickly all over the globe. The hostages, 3 females and 1 male were conversing with the captors using their first names and were in fact resentful towards the police chief. Hostages argued that the captors are not bad people and police might force captors to kill hostages if the police force their entry in the building.
When one hostage, named Elisabeth Oldgren, complained of claustrophobia, captors allowed the lady to roam outside the vault with a 30 feet rope attached to her. In a later interview, she recalled that back then, she thought that the captors are not as bad, and they are treating us well. Another hostage, called Enmark, even phoned Prime Minister Olof Palme proposing to allow but the captors to leave with her and that she fully trust them. Enmark stated “I fully trust Clark and the robber. I am not desperate. They haven’t done a thing to us. On the contrary, they have been very nice. But you know Olof, what I am scared of is that the police will attack and cause us to die”.
This high-voltage drama came to an end when the police, on the night of 28th August, after 130hrs decided to enter. They pumped teargas inside and the hijackers quickly surrendered. Even then, the hostages walked out first, so that police will not shoot their captors as soon as they see them.
After the whole episode, both hijackers became a hot topic among people. Both faced trials and Olsson alone was identified as guilty; he spent years behind the bars. After the sentence was over, he married one of the many women who wrote fan letters to him when he was in jail. He released his autobiography ‘The Stockholm Syndrome’ in 2009. The hostage Enmark and Oloffson became really good family friends and frequently saw each other after the robbery. This whole thing was so new to people that police, for a long time, suspected that Enmark was involved in the robbery.
The Syndrome
Psychologically, in order to get through terrifying situations,
we often attach to our captors as a way to almost survive it. Victims think ‘I
care about them and understand what’s going with them; they’re keeping me
alive, they are nice to me’. And in a way, by being nice to our captors we’re
increasing the chances that we will live through it. So, it’s like our brain’s
way of helping us to get through an abusive or scary and traumatic situation. This
applies in a clinical therapy practice, more along the lines of people who are
in controlling or abusive relationships. For example, we find this a lot battered
men or women will refuse to press charges against their abusers. Many even bail
them out of the jail. Stockholm syndrome can be traced back to 4 main factors:
- The feeling of a great deal of threat physically or psychologically. (Same as the hostages felt on the first day)
- Small act of kindness from the abuser/abductor. (For example, the hijackers allowed hostages to roam around etc.)
- Isolation from other perspectives. (The vault acted as a perfect isolation chamber)
- Not being able to escape.
Stockholm syndrome is not limited to situations like bank robberies only. It exists in many forms and classes, all over the world. We all have very diverse and complex social relationships and sometimes we get entangled in them. These entanglements led to abuse and harassment. In many relationships the person who is suffering stays silent or get used to it and does not take a stand. The silence slowly worsens the situation. Small tokens of kindness or even just the absence of abuse for a short period, promotes the development of such ‘Stockholm’-bonds. The best way to help someone with Stockholm syndrome, as told by therapist Keti Morton, is to listen. Radical ideas or suggestion might work against the victim or victim might feel even more ashamed of themselves, which will further escalate the suffering only. Therefore listening and suggesting professional help with positive example can actually help a lot more than aggressive ideas like fighting back.
References:
Keti Morton on Stockholm Syndrome.
Article by: Skand Prateek Kaushik
Hope you people learnt something new today…..
Please share and help us reach more and more people…..
Stay tuned to knowledge villa for more such content…..
4 Comments
Well written article, good explanation 👍🏼
ReplyDeleteThank you😇😇
DeleteGreat post. 👍👍👍
ReplyDeleteThank you😇😇
Delete