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'The One Thing We're All Afraid of Is Going Insane' – Stockholm Syndrome and the Art of Hostage Negotiation
BBC ^ | 8/19

Posted on 08/19/2024 1:18:22 PM PDT by nickcarraway

The six-day bank siege that inspired the controversial Stockholm Syndrome theory began on 23 August 1973. In 1980, a BBC documentary featured two pioneering New York police negotiators who had built their careers on the lessons they had learnt from hostage situations past, including this bizarre robbery attempt.

"But Sven, it's only in the leg."

Those were the words of Kristin Enmark, 23, who was one of four people being held hostage at gunpoint in a Swedish bank. It was day two of the siege, and robber Jan-Erik Olsson wanted to show the police he meant business by shooting her terrified bank colleague Sven Säfström.

Enmark told the BBC's Witness History in 2016: "Jan said to him, 'I'm not going to hurt any bones in your leg; I'm just going to shoot in the part that is not going to make so much injury'."

Looking back, she struggled to comprehend her callous reaction. She said: "In that situation, I thought that he was somehow being a coward, not letting himself be shot in the leg. I think it's awful for me to think that and to say that, but I also think it shows what can happen to people when they are in a situation that is so absurd. It is a situation that makes this moral shift. I really feel ashamed about this."

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: olympics; stockholmsyndrome; sweden

1 posted on 08/19/2024 1:18:22 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

The world is Stockholm now.


2 posted on 08/19/2024 1:35:16 PM PDT by xoxox
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To: nickcarraway

I’m a lot more afraid of y’all going insane than me going insane.


3 posted on 08/19/2024 1:54:16 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: nickcarraway

Might say more about the people of Sweden than it does about hostages in general.


4 posted on 08/19/2024 2:20:08 PM PDT by AnotherUnixGeek
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To: DannyTN

Sorry, too late for you..


5 posted on 08/19/2024 3:24:24 PM PDT by A strike ("Rise Peter, kill and eat.")
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To: nickcarraway

She was all about him getting shot in the leg. She would not have been so relaxed if she was being told that she wouldn’t have any bone damage. It was the feed him to the crocodile or whatever outrun him from the grizzly bear. This was not to the stage of actual Stockholm Syndrome. It takes a week or two of being part of the same social circle as the crooks. Essentially when the crooks and the hostages are in the same place for an extended period, they form a social group. The social group has a belongingness because humans crave to be part of one. Thus it becomes the us of us/them, them being everyone else. It is a lot like a cult.


6 posted on 08/19/2024 3:56:59 PM PDT by webheart
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