Hi!
So my character is male, 19 now. He suffers of ptsd (I have this myself and know how to write this), but he'll also have stockholm syndrome.
Does anyone have any tips on writing this?
Little bit of background; he's a lbgt+ character who was an outsider untill someone started hanging out with him when he was 15.
Things got romantic and sexual, but then things escelate and it gets abusive.
Thanks beforehand :)
Well Stockholm syndrome is tricky because technically speaking it's not real? what I mean is it's not a real disorder as classified by the DSM5 nor is it as common as media might have you think. but a basic rule of thumb is it's not going to be a beauty and beast type of situation where the captive has any sort of freedom, your boy will have to locked up and completely isolated from the outside world, the 'acts of kindness' that his captor will show him will be nothing more than something like giving him food when he's starving etc.
I think though for your story about an abusive relationship you won't want to classify your boy's attachment as actual Stockholm syndrome because just unless hes physically imprisoned hes probably just you run or mil stuck in an abuse relationship.
Yeah it's rather weird that it's not officially real? Because I have met some people with it during therapy and it's quite different than trauma-patients (in care as well for those people).
But they don't have to be locked up if I remember correctly, the main guess (i think) was that the victim still would return to their abuser and can't fully see that the abuser is an awful person.
But please correct me if i'm wrong!
I'm still working on plot but if i were to include this it's better to have the information first :)
Yeah, I'm actually not sure then, I've just relayed what I've learned in my classes and stuff but I could be misrepresenting or just be wrong, I certainly would't discourage you from doing your own research though - which it sounds like you already have.
Heres just an expert from Britannica if it helps explain what it is
"Psychologists who have studied the syndrome believe that the bond is initially created when a captor threatens a captive’s life, deliberates, and then chooses not to kill the captive. The captive’s relief at the removal of the death threat is transposed into feelings of gratitude toward the captor for giving him or her life…it takes only a few days for this bond to cement, proving that, early on, the victim’s desire to survive trumps the urge to hate the person who created the situation. The survival instinct is at the heart of the Stockholm syndrome. Victims live in enforced dependence and interpret rare or small acts of kindness in the midst of horrible conditions as good treatment. They often become hypervigilant to the needs and demands of their captors, making psychological links between the captors’ happiness and their own. Indeed, the syndrome is marked not only by a positive bond between captive and captor but also by a negative attitude on behalf of the captive toward authorities who threaten the captor-captive relationship.
"By the 21st century, psychologists had expanded their understanding of the Stockholm syndrome from hostages to other groups, including victims of domestic violence, cult members, prisoners of war, procured prostitutes, and abused children. The American Psychiatric Association does not include Stockholm syndrome in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM5).
I think what you might really want to look into is battered woman syndrome which is similar to SS and an off shoot of PSTD. This is what commonly comes from abusive relationships and may be a better term for what you are trying to describe.
Thanks! that really helps things clear up
(may i ask what kind of classes you followed? I'm very interested in things like this)
I'll also look in the battered woman syndrome, that's completely new to me
Yeah I've taken a couple university level courses (I'm old) in psychology like Psych 101 obviously, psychology of personality, psychology of adolescence, and Sociological psych. I'm in university now actually and Psychology is my minor.
To be honest I think there's no humanities major that doesn't befit from a psych minor- If you don't mind my asking, how old are you/ do you know what you want ot study?
That's really cool! wish i could do that!
I'm 18 and study animal-care basically (there's not really an english term), but i want to do some psychology after this. But I've spent years in mental-care hospitals, so I do have some knowledge that comes in handy.
Yeah wow that's really impressive, yeah I was just going to say if you were planning to attend uni personally I'd always recommend picking up some psych electives just for knowledge sake, especially if you ever decide to switch to human care instead of animals lol, but I'm really glad I can help and its always cool to see people interested in this stuff. I know its a soft science but I'm personally pretty ardent about the importance of learn history psych and sociology ya know
