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Stockholm Syndrome As Vernacular Resource
Stockholm Syndrome As Vernacular Resource
To cite this article: Michael Adorjan, Tony Christensen, Benjamin Kelly & Dorothy Pawluch (2012)
Stockholm Syndrome as Vernacular Resource, The Sociological Quarterly, 53:3, 454-474, DOI:
10.1111/j.1533-8525.2012.01241.x
STOCKHOLM SYNDROME AS
VERNACULAR RESOURCE tsq_1241 454..474
Michael Adorjan*
University of Hong Kong
Tony Christensen
Wilfrid Laurier University
Benjamin Kelly
Nipissing University
Dorothy Pawluch
McMaster University
First coined in 1973 to describe a pathological response on the part of individuals involved in
kidnapping or hostage-taking situations, the label “Stockholm syndrome” has since been used in
a much broader range of contexts including reference to wife battering and human trafficking, and
in debates about gender and race politics as well as international relations. Tracing the domain
expansion of Stockholm syndrome since the 1970s, we examine how the label offers claims-
makers a device for neutralizing the arguments of those with opposing points of view, and, in so
doing, reinforces collective narratives and “formula stories” of victimization.
INTRODUCTION
Over the past 30 years, there have been several high-profile cases where Stockholm
syndrome has been said to be involved. Stockholm syndrome, as it was defined by one of
the earliest psychiatrists interested in the condition, is a disorder whereby abductees
bond with or express loyalty toward their captors in an effort to save their lives or make
their ordeal more tolerable (Strentz 1980). First used in 1973 in connection with the
response of a group of employees held hostage in a robbery at a Stockholm bank, the use
of the term “Stockholm syndrome” used to be restricted largely to kidnaps and hostage-
taking incidents. However, since the 1970s, the term has been used in a much broader
range of cases. The power imbalance argued to be an essential dimension of the syn-
drome and the false emotional bonds these imbalances are said to create have led some
claims-makers to suggest that Stockholm syndrome occurs not only in abduction or
hostage-taking cases but in a whole host of situations and conditions not immediately
*Direct all correspondence to Michael Adorjan, Department of Sociology and Centre for Criminology,
University of Hong Kong, Room 1210, 12th fl., K.K. Leung Building, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong 999077,
China; e-mail: madorjan@hku.hk
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Stockholm Syndrome as Vernacular Resource Michael Adorjan et al.
gain currency as far as how social actors interpret and respond to their worlds.
In analyzing the construction and use of the Stockholm syndrome label, we consider
specifically the impact of using a medical paradigm to make sense of responses and
behaviors that claims-makers are seeking to discredit.
We have organized our article as follows: We begin by looking at where the term
Stockholm syndrome first originated, how it was defined, the theories generated to
explain it, and the contexts and debates in which it has been used over the years. In
presenting this definitional history, we follow roughly the sequential model laid out by
Conrad and Schneider (1980). While the process of generating disease designations
for behaviors viewed as deviant is not a central thrust of the article, we consider the
questions about the medicalizing process that the Stockholm syndrome label raises. A
more central goal for this part of the article is to document the creep in the situations
to which the Stockholm syndrome label has been applied and to discuss this creep in
relation to the concept of domain expansion (Best 2008).
In the second part, our goal is to explain the domain expansion surrounding the
Stockholm syndrome label by looking at the appeal of the label and its utility to social
problems claims-makers. After presenting our argument, we offer a brief analysis of
the Yvonne Ridley case. Ridley is a British journalist who converted to Islam after having
been released by her Taliban captors in Afghanistan in 2001, leading some commenta-
tors to conclude that she was a victim of Stockholm syndrome. The Ridley case allows
us to illustrate in a more concrete way the points we seek to make about how the label
Stockholm syndrome and others like it are used.
Our analysis centers on the professional and scholarly literature as well as the
popular press and Internet sources. Searchable online databases Factiva and LexisNexis
were searched to identify patterns of news reporting as well as to explore how the label
has been applied over time. Case studies or accounts were often featured, mostly cen-
tered on individuals ostensibly suffering from Stockholm syndrome. For the more highly
publicized of these cases (e.g., the original Stockholm case, the Patty Hearst and Yvonne
Ridley cases), we examined secondary sources. We also explored the medical, psychiatric,
and criminological literature, including Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) research
reports. It was among these sources that we located “expert” discussions about the
causes, symptoms, and treatment for Stockholm syndrome and ways to manage Stock-
holm syndrome-type situations. The materials that demonstrated the use of Stockholm
syndrome label in social problems discourse came from an even broader range of
sources including the popular press, academic treatises and journals, organizational Web
sites and personal blogs. Indeed, these sources reflect the wide array of arenas in which
social problems claims-making currently occurs (Maratea 2008). Our analysis of
the materials was shaped by the questions we began to ask—the questions raised in this
article—as we familiarized ourselves with the data (Berg 2004). While the range of issues
to which the term Stockholm syndrome is applied continues to broaden in novel and
unpredictable ways, we were eventually persuaded that in terms of uncovering the main
form of social problems claims-making centered on the use of the Stockholm syndrome
label, we had reached a point of saturation.
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Stockholm Syndrome as Vernacular Resource Michael Adorjan et al.
Dubrovka House of Culture by Chechen terrorists in 2002 (Speckhard et al. 2005), the
Beslan school hostage-taking crisis in North Ossetia, and many others in the Western
world and the Middle East linked mostly to political conflict (for more details of this
history, see Christensen et al. in press).
Stockholm syndrome was typified in the psychiatric and criminological literature as
a condition resulting from situations where there is face-to-face contact between captors
and captives, where captors induce extreme fright or terror in their victims in order to
render them helpless, powerless, and totally submissive. Victims, according to psychiat-
ric claims, see no means of escape and fear for their lives. Under such circumstances, any
act of kindness on the part of the captors or even the absence of beatings, abuse, or rape
lead victims to see their captors as “good guys” (Symonds 1980). According to most
formal definitions of the syndrome, victims develop: (1) positive feelings toward their
captors and sympathy for their causes or goals, and (2) negative feelings toward the
police or authorities. These emotional bonds may be reciprocal; in other words, captors
may also develop positive feelings for their captives (the identification of captors with
their captives is occasionally referred to as Lima syndrome). The symptoms of Stock-
holm syndrome, it is argued, may persist long after captives are free (Skurnik 1988; Call
1999).
The etiological theories that psychiatric experts propose generally posit a psycho-
analytic explanation, emphasizing the idea of a survival mechanism. Strentz (1980)
explains that in a situation where individuals fear for their lives, “the victim’s need to
survive is stronger than his impulse to hate the person who has created the dilemma”
(p. 148). This results in a particular form of pathological transference or identification,
whereby the victim becomes attached to the captor. The positive emotional bond is
said to be a defense mechanism of the ego under stress. According to the theory, victims
do not simply play at being sympathetic to their captors. Out of fear of being seen as
insincere, they actually come to believe that their feelings toward their captors are
genuine. More recent research claims that there may be an evolutionary basis to Stock-
holm syndrome. Pointing out that similar responses have been observed in many
reptilian and mammalian species, especially primates, Cantor and Price (2007) argue
that ethological concepts such as dominance hierarchies and submission strategies go a
long way toward explaining the paradoxically positive relationships that may develop
between those experiencing traumatic entrapment and their oppressors.
The treatment typically recommended for Stockholm syndrome takes the form
of psychiatric or psychological counseling aimed at getting victims to recognize their
experiences as understandable, but nevertheless psychopathological, responses to their
circumstances. If Stockholm syndrome creates false perceptions, emotions, and attach-
ments, the goal of the treatment is an “undoing and reversing [of] the factors that
brought about the traumatic psychological infantilism” (Symonds 1980:135) and the
restoration of a normal state where victims’ responses are not distorted by fear and a
desperate desire to survive.
Alongside research into treatment, there has been some effort to develop protocols
for those most likely to find themselves in circumstances where they might be dealing
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Stockholm Syndrome as Vernacular Resource Michael Adorjan et al.
the kind of scientific buttressing that supports most medical labels in the form of
formal definitions, specified symptomatologies, and etiological theories. Along with
other instances of bottom-up medicalization (see Schneider [1978] on alcoholism, Scott
[1990] on PTSD, Johnson and Hufbauer [1982] on sudden infant death syndrome, and
Levine and Troiden [1988] on sexual compulsivity), the case of Stockholm syndrome
underlines the fact that the impulse to medicalize can originate anywhere and that the
involvement of health professionals and the pursuit of scientific evidence can be the
consequence, rather than the genesis, of medicalization.
Second, the Stockholm syndrome case raises questions about what constitutes legiti-
mization of a medical label. Despite the fact that the existence of Stockholm syndrome
has been disputed by some experts and that there are questions regarding whether it will
ever be included in the DSM, the label continues to be used. The persistence of its use
suggests that instead of asking whether a medical label or diagnosis has achieved recog-
nition, there are more sociological insights to be mined from asking questions about
who recognizes medical labels (or contests them), under what circumstances, and with
what consequences.
DOMAIN EXPANSION
The growth in the use of the Stockholm syndrome label since the 1970s is illustrated in
the following graph. Figure 1 displays the results of a search of all Factiva database news
sources for the exact phrase “stockholm syndrome” (whether or not the label was the
main focus of the article), which includes 4,527 (English language) newspapers, 362 Web
news articles, 29 blogs, and 2 multimedia sources.
We also consulted LexisNexis, searching the New York Times (Figure 2), and the
Globe & Mail (Figure 3) newspapers, leading news sources in the United States and
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Michael Adorjan et al. Stockholm Syndrome as Vernacular Resource
Canada, respectively. The data reveal the same trends. The Stockholm syndrome label is
being used much more extensively and, as we will show, has become a common cultural
referent.
While the patterns in terms of how frequently the label is invoked are interesting, the
more significant point to which we draw attention is the ways in which the label has
come to apply to circumstances and behaviors beyond its original application. While in
the early years the Stockholm syndrome label was restricted to cases involving abduc-
tions and hostage-taking situations, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was a
broadening of the circumstances to which the label was applied. Picking up on the idea
of power imbalances at the root of the syndrome and the false emotional bonds they
were said to create, researchers and scholars increasingly claimed that Stockholm syn-
drome occurs not only in abduction cases but in a range of other situations that might
not at first blush appear to be obvious cases of the syndrome.
One group to which the label is now often applied is battered/abused women.
Through the 1980s, Dee Graham, a feminist psychologist (Graham, Rawlings, and
Rimini 1988), was instrumental in promoting the idea that the behaviors exhibited
by battered women, particularly those who denied their status as battered women or
refused to leave their partners were consistent with the symptoms of Stockholm syn-
drome. This typification has since come to permeate discourse about battered women.
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Stockholm Syndrome as Vernacular Resource Michael Adorjan et al.
claim that as the direct result of slavery many African Americans, particularly those who
have achieved positions of success or power, have developed a slave or “Sambo” men-
tality. They describe this response as a manifestation of Stockholm syndrome:
This manifestation of the Sambo mentality or the Stockholm syndrome may become
externalized through attempts to mimic Euro-Americans, to dissociate from any-
thing identifiably or perceived as identifiably African-American, and even to exhibit
embarrassment when another African-American demonstrates behavior that is
thought to be viewed negatively by Euro-Americans. (p. 350)
Journalists and political commentators have also made reference to the Stockholm
syndrome label to explain political situations, international relations, and global
conflicts. Pilevsky (1989), for example, in his book Captive Continent, analyzes politi-
cal tensions during the 1980s between Western Europe and its traditional ally, the
United States. Pilevsky claims that the former Soviet Union was responsible for the
tensions, actively pursuing a policy that fostered a hostage-captor mentality among
Western Europeans. This in turn, he insisted, generated a Stockholm syndrome–type
response whereby Western Europeans began distrusting the United States and shifted
either toward a nationalistic neutralism or a pro-Soviet position on many significant
issues.
Other instances of the use of the label include explanations for the apparent
willingness of the Indian government to appease Pakistani terrorists (Kaushal 2005),
the alleged sympathy of the Israeli left for the Arab cause and the peace process
(Levin 2005), the purported rise in conversions to Islam after 9/11 (Richardson 2006),
and the resistance of some Taiwanese to reunification with China (Chu 1999). Others
have made references to “corporate Stockholm syndrome” described as “the phenom-
enon wherein employees of a business start to identify with, and are exceedingly loyal to,
an employer who is manifestly hostile to their own self-interest” (http://c2.com/cgi/
wiki?CorporateStockholmSyndrome; see also http://feuerthoughts.blogspot.com/2009/
07/corporate-stockholm-syndrome.html).
The broadening of the meaning of the Stockholm syndrome label and its applica-
tion in an ever-increasing range of situations serves as a good example of domain
expansion. Joel Best (2008) defines domain expansion as the “redefining of a troubling
condition to encompass a broader array of cases” (p. 338). When a claim about a
condition has gained acceptance, it is possible to build additional claims on that foun-
dation. Domain expansion has been observed in relation to medical labels where
already existing labels are broadened and made more inclusive. For example, the
concept of hyperactivity or attention deficit disorder (ADD), once understood as
affecting only children, has recently been expanded to include adults (Conrad and
Potter 2000). Increasingly, reference is also being made to children with nature deficit
disorder—a condition characterized by an alienation from nature that results in
depression, obesity, and ADD (Louv 2006). Addiction (Peele 1995; Schneirov and
Geczik 1998) and PTSD have expanded well beyond their original parameters
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may claim that prostitution is a choice made freely, but “no one really wants to have sex
with five, ten or twenty strangers a day, every day” (Parker 2002). No “reasonable” person
with realistic options would choose prostitution. Parker (1998) argues that “Stockholm
syndrome often is the real reason for what others see as the ‘choice’ to stay in the sex
industry.” Prostitutes are not really making a choice when they get into or stay with
prostitution. Those who understand their decisions as a choice that they have freely made
and defend their decision as a legitimate one are not acting or responding reasonably. No
less than the hostages in the Kreditbanken robbery, they are captives of their pimps and/or
of a system that perpetuates their oppression. With no possibility of escape and as a
survival mechanism, they internalize the perspective of their oppressors and turn against
those who desire only to rescue them.
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Stockholm Syndrome as Vernacular Resource Michael Adorjan et al.
herself has consistently rejected the notion, explaining repeatedly over the years that
she does not fit the definition of the disorder: “To suffer from Stockholm syndrome, you
have to bond with your captors. You have to have an empathy with them. During my 10
days (of captivity), I did not bond with my captors. I spat at them. I swore at them. I threw
things at them. I was aggressive. I was rude (and) obnoxious. I was the prisoner from hell”
(Csillag 2007). As Ridley explains it, although she was under pressure to espouse Islamic
views during her captivity, she resisted. She did, however, promise her captors to read the
Qur’an if released—a promise she kept. What started as an “academic” study, she said, led
eventually to a “spiritual” awakening (Newsweek International 2002).
Recognizing the effect that an assertion of Stockholm syndrome would have on her
credibility as a spokesperson for the views she espouses, Ridley has tried to expose the
assertion as a strategy for discounting the arguments she makes about Islam and anti-
Muslim sentiment in the West. She has pointed out:
that [the assertion of Stockholm syndrome] comes from people who cannot accept
that a Western woman has rejected what they see as Western values to embrace Islam.
Because they can’t understand it, they fear it. And because they fear it, they have to
attack it. The easiest thing they can come up with is Stockholm syndrome. (Csillag
2007)
In an interview in The Muslim Observer, Ridley says even more clearly: “The syn-
drome thing is used by detractors and those who cannot explain why a professional
Western woman would embrace Islam” (http://muslimmedianetwork.com).
Despite her protestations, indeed because of them, Ridley continues to be seen as a
victim of Stockholm syndrome. The more outrageous her views, from the perspective of
her critics, the clearer the evidence that she continues to suffer the long-term effects of
having been traumatized by her abduction. The more vehement her denials, the more
pitiable she can be portrayed to be.
CONCLUSION
Stockholm syndrome is increasingly being used in social problems discourse and politi-
cal debates to discredit the claims of others. We have tracked its history from its origins
in the context of kidnappings and hostage-taking incidents through to its application to
a broader range of behaviors where individuals are described as being so oppressed or
traumatized that they cannot think straight or express their own agency. While there are
elements of this history that can be described as domain expansion, we have shown that
the use of the label to describe the collective responses of entire social groups appears to
represent a more diffuse type of expansion.
Used in social problems discourse, the Stockholm syndrome label can be understood
as a rhetorical power play, an effort to discredit counter claims-makers. The label offers
claims-makers a way to neutralize the arguments of those with opposing points of view.
It does so by medicalizing the alternative and problematic perspective of the other
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Michael Adorjan et al. Stockholm Syndrome as Vernacular Resource
(Conrad and Schneider 1980). The label promotes particular formula stories—those
constructions of conditions and events that claims-makers seek to institutionalize
as “what we all know to be true.” The label, its construction of social reality, of what is
real and false, of who sees clearly, and whose views are distorted become part of our own
taken-for-granted assumptions about the world. The invocation of the Stockholm syn-
drome is meant to establish the point of view of the social actor invoking the label as “the
truth,” and all competing claims as suspect, illegitimate, or nonsensical.
We are not the first to draw attention to the implications of framing “problem”
behaviors, reactions, responses, or positions in medical terms. Conrad and Schneider
(1980) pointed out that among the consequences of medicalization is the individual-
ization and depoliticization of any meaning those behaviors may have. They illustrated
the point using the example of political dissidents in the Soviet Union who were
declared mentally ill and confined to mental hospitals. This strategy neutralized their
dissent rendering it, officially at least, merely symptomatic of mental illness. An equally
powerful example of the way in which medical labels can depoliticize individuals’
responses is Thomas Szasz’s (1981) analysis of the drapetomania and dysaesthesia aethio-
pis labels. First described in the prestigious New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal
in 1851 by Samuel A. Cartwright, drapetomania refers to a disease characterized by an
effort on the part of the “Negro” slave to escape from his/her white master.
The strategy of using medical (especially mental illness) diagnoses as a tool for
silencing others, neutralizing counterclaims, depoliticizing debate, or pre-empting it
altogether continues with a growing range of mental illness labels available to be used by
social actors against those with different experiences, views, beliefs, and ideologies. It is
sometimes easier with the benefit of historical perspective to see the strategic and
political uses of these labels. To the extent that more contemporary versions, like Stock-
holm syndrome, gain currency, it is harder to see that these labels work in the same way
and are intended to accomplish the same political ends. The labels, their constructions
of social reality, of what is real and what is false, of who sees clearly, and whose views are
distorted become part of our own taken-for-granted assumptions about the world. Our
intent in this article is not to challenge the Stockholm syndrome label nor its use in
any particular social problems debate but to draw attention to how the label works to
generate those assumptions.
While we have framed our analysis of Stockholm syndrome in the context of the
constructionist literature on social problems, the ideas we have explored here have
relevance to a broader range of discussions and debates in sociology. The way in which
the Stockholm syndrome label is used to construct individuals and groups as victims of
their experiences, and the way in which those so labeled either take on or challenge the
attribution makes Stockholm syndrome an interesting case to examine in relation to
debates about “victim contests,” where the concern is with the extent to which political
discourse has become essentially about claims for and against victimization and victim
status (Cole 2007). The strategy for neutralizing opposing claims that Stockholm
syndrome represents can also be looked at in relation to the growing literature on
“culture wars” (Hunter 1991), where the interest is in better understanding how moral
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Stockholm Syndrome as Vernacular Resource Michael Adorjan et al.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Publishing success is socially mediated. The authors are grateful to the anonymous
reviewers as well as the editors of The Sociological Quarterly for their helpful and
encouraging feedback. The article benefited also from the thoughtful comments of
many colleagues and peers. The article originated as a discussion the authors had as part
of the Canadian Constructionist Circle.
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