Forged by Trauma

Love, Twisted

Stockholm syndrome – named after a 1973 bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden, where hostages ended up defending their captors - is a psychological phenomenon in which someone who is held captive or abused, develops feelings like empathy, loyalty, or even affection toward their captor or abuser.

The victim - towards reducing their immediate danger and increasing their chances of survival - tries to cooperate or bond with the captor. They “notice” acts of “kindness,” reframe the dynamic as “being in this together” with care and camaraderie, and humanize rather than demonize the captor.

Over time, what starts as playing along to survive, can turn into genuine feeling for the captor and can reshape the victim’s perception. Even after the threat is gone, the emotional bond can persist.

The victim might feel loyalty, attachment, or even affection, defending or rationalizing the captor’s past actions. Essentially, the brain rewires its emotional responses - from fear and dependence to care and attachment.

The condition starts as a survival response, but evolves into a lasting psychological bonding pattern.

While it’s often associated with kidnappings or hostage situations, similar patterns can appear in abusive relationships, cults, or other situations where someone feels trapped.

In 1974 Patty Hearst, at age 20, was kidnapped by a radical left wing militant group and was reportedly held in isolation, threatened, and abused. Within weeks, she publicly adopted the group’s ideology, changed her name and later participated in an armed bank robbery with her captors. After her arrest in 1975, her defense argued that her apparent loyalty resulted from Stockholm syndrome where her survival response converted to identification with her captors. She was convicted and imprisoned, but in 1979 President Carter commuted her sentence under stringent conditions, and in 2001 President Clinton granted her a full pardon.

Point being – The US legal system considers Stockholm syndrome a real and significant factor in legal proceedings, evaluating whether prolonged coercion and trauma can affect a person’s capacity for independent judgment.

In fundamentalist theistic religion’s dynamic, a child learns that obedience to god ensures safety, compliance brings grace, while disobedience brings danger and invites punishment, creating deep existential dependence on authority. This dependence can evoke a desire to bond with the god authority and ITs representatives as a survival methodology, which can evolve into emotional connection.

Over time the person may genuinely feel closeness, reverence, or love for God, which lasts a lifetime, shaping feelings of guilt, moral reasoning, and loyalty.

Fear-based conditioning is internalized, intertwined, and then replaced with attachment.

Arguably, one’s experience in this type of religion can be described as an example of Stockholm Syndrome.

So, let’s be kind to religious folks. They all might be survivors.