How Does Stockholm Syndrome Look in the Corporate World?

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The Stockholm syndrome is an emotional response that happens to some abuse and hostage victims when they have positive feelings toward an abuser or captor. The phenomenon known as Stockholm syndrome refers to a paradoxical relationship between a captive and a captor in which the captive displays a strong sense of bonding to the captor in such a way that he/she is willing to help or protect the captor even from law enforcement agencies who might be on the trail of the captor to bring him/her to justice. The name of the syndrome is derived from a botched bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden. In August 1973 four employees of Sveriges Kreditbank were held hostage in the bank’s vault for six days. During the standoff, a seemingly incongruous bond developed between captive and captor. One hostage, during a telephone call with Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, stated that she fully trusted her captors but feared that she would die in a police assault on the building.