Stockholm syndrome

1. uncountableA psychological condition in which a hostage emotionally bonds to their captor.

   You're suffering from what humans call Stockholm Syndrome: you have bonded with your captors.

   2001, Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl, page 259

   2 more examples

   Natascha Kampusch, the 18 year old Austrian woman who escaped from her kidnapper last week after eight years in captivity,[…] is thought to be suffering from an extreme version of Stockholm syndrome, in which victims begin to associate and sympathise with their attackers.

   2006 May 28, Cape Times

   Today I tipped into full-blown Stockholm syndrome and decided to go into work on a Saturday off.

   2017, Adam Kay, This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor

   Synonyms: capture-bonding, Helsinki syndrome

present singular third person Stockholm syndromes · participle present Stockholm syndroming · participle past Stockholm syndromed · past Stockholm syndromed

1. informaltransitiveTo cause someone to become affected by Stockholm syndrome.

   The girls, it turns out, found the experience oddly positive, and not because they were brainwashed or Stockholm syndromed.

   2015 July 17, Sarah Lyall, “Review: In 'Pretty Is,' Grown Friends Recall Being Kidnapped”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 Jun 2022

   2 more examples

   Eventually, you Stockholm Syndromed yourself into believing that what happened to the Bills mattered to your life. Off the top of my head, I can still list more members of the 1990-93 Super Bowl-averse Bills than kids in my Grade 8 class.

   2021 January 17, Cathal Kelly, “The curious case of all the Bills fans who are not from Buffalo”, in The Globe and Mail, Toronto, O.N.: The Woodbridge Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 Aug 2022

   Britannia's is the best because they understand that a bunny is as much a feat of engineering as cooking. The quarter loaf of bread must, must be of the generic, mass-produced sort (not a farmhouse loaf, definitely not a milk bread, just standard unsliced white), with the light crust a dam wall holding in a reservoir of rich mutton curry that's Stockholm-syndroming massive potato halves, the sauce riveted with cloves and singing to the tune of ginger and curry leaves, the whole edible edifice capped with a dome built of the belly of the bread.

   2022 March 6, “AA Gill Award winner 2022: introducing Sanjiv Mistry”, in The Times, London: News UK, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 Jun 2023