Transition To Stockholm Syndrome (SS)

By a show of hands how many of you have ever heard of Patty Hearst? For those of you haven’t Patty Hearst was a nineteen year old heiress when she was kidnapped by an armed-guerilla group called the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974. After months of mental and physical trauma Hearst not only joined the radical group but voluntarily participated in their criminal behavior until her capture in 1975. As a psychology major I wanted to know the mental processes in which she was able to successfully transition from hostage victim to gun wielding radical — that led me to Stockholm Syndrome (SS) — a rare psychological phenomenon where hostages grow emotionally attached to their captors, despite the present danger they are in. Today we will learn how