The Darker Side : Stockholm Syndrome

[kahuna_burger]

This month's Darker Side topic is Stockholm Syndrome : a phenomenon where people held against their will for an extended period of time can develop empathy, affection and even loyalty for their captors. Hrm, sound familiar? It's rarely addressed directly within the story, but the result, if not the psychological description, underlies a lot of

Comments

[okapi1895]

This made me think of a crack fic I started and never finished. It was based on the Hades/Persephone myth and in the BBC Sherlock universe. It was called 'Make Tea or Die' Moriarty kidnaps John because he wants a nice cup of tea and keeps him in an underground flat just so he can get a cup of tea every morning and John has all these conflicted feelings of escaping and then finally accepting it. And Sherlock and Moriarty end up with some kind of John time-share, like the seasons (with Persephone). I wrote 4k+ of it before abandoning it. Maybe this month, I'll go back to it and finish it.

[kahuna_burger]

Heh, tea is very important to a supervillain!

When I was writing a lot of Spike/Xander fic, I always meant to write something around the line of dialog : "Well, I wouldn't call it love at first sight, so much as instant onset Stockholm Syndrome."

[okapi1895]

That's a nice line and when you have dashing villains, I suppose Stockholm Syndrome is inevitable.

[dreamersdare]

I write a fair amount of this and variants of it (characters in situations they can't escape from, which result in deeply unhealthy relationships; characters who are manipulated and seduced against their will; characters faced with the evil counterpart of someone they love/trust and said evil counterpart capitalises on that connection - I suspect the list is endless!). Musing it over now, I've come up with three reasons that I think it appeals to me

[asphaltcowgrrl]

Your first two examples make perfect sense and don't come off as pretentious at all. And I'm dying laughing at reason #3. Why? Because I sometimes use fic to 'get back at' people who have ticked me off or hurt me by doing things I never could do or say in real life. It's great satisfaction without actually hurting anyone.

Whether it adds to it or not, it is still interesting and my have inadvertently given me an idea for May's original fic post. :D

[alba17]

I just read a novel that explored this. The Good Girl by Mary Kubica. A woman is kidnapped for ransom and she and her captor fall in love. As you experience it, you feel like they’re really in love, but it’s hard to tell given the situation.

[asphaltcowgrrl]

I READ THIS. And it left me feeling really unsettled in the end. But it is an excellent example of this.