History Main / StockholmSyndrome

* A variation in ''Series/FindingCarter'', when the eponymous character, upon learning that she was a kidnapping victim, initially identifies more strongly with her kidnapper than with her real family. However, this is less StockholmSyndrome in the conventional sense and more so that Carter, who was only a toddler when she was abducted and hadn't even been aware of the crime up to that point, grew up truly believing that the kidnapper was her mother and relating to her as such; by the time Carter learned the truth, she isn't able to just cast off that relationship, even knowing it was built on a lie. What's more, going back to her real family essentially meant being ripped away from the life she knew and shoved into one that was entirely unfamiliar, causing her to rebel against this new life and her birth family with it. With time and clarity, she eventually begins to see that the mother-daughter relationship between her and the kidnapper was screwed up in ways she hadn't immediately recognized (like the fact that they had been celebrating Carter's "birthday" on the anniversary of her abduction), and slowly accepts her family again.

* A variation in ''Series/FindingCarter'', when the eponymous character, upon learning that she was a kidnapping victim, initially identifies more strongly with her kidnapper than her family. However, this is less StockholmSyndrome in the conventional sense and more so that Carter, who was only a toddler when she was abducted, grew up believing that the kidnapper was her mother; by the time Carter learned the truth, she had spent thirteen years relating to the woman as her loving mom, and she isn't able to just cast off that relationship even knowing it was built on a lie. What's more, going back to her real family essentially meant being ripped away from the life she knew and shoved into one that was entirely unfamiliar, causing her to rebel against this new life and her birth family with it. With time and clarity, she eventually begins to see that the mother-daughter relationship between her and the kidnapper was screwed up in ways she hadn't immediately recognized (like the fact that they had been celebrating Carter's "birthday" on the anniversary of her abduction), and slowly accepts her family again.

* A variation in ''Series/FindingCarter'', when the eponymous character initially identifies more strongly with her kidnapper than her family. However, this is less StockholmSyndrome in the conventional sense and more so that Carter, who was only a toddler when she was abducted, wasn't even aware that she was the victim of a crime and grew up believing that the kidnapper was her mother; by the time Carter learned the truth, she had spent thirteen years relating to the woman as her loving mom, and she isn't able to just cast off that relationship even knowing it was built on a lie. What's more, going back to her real family essentially meant being ripped away from the life she knew and shoved into one that was entirely unfamiliar, causing her to rebel against this new life and her birth family with it. With time and clarity, she eventually begins to see that the mother-daughter relationship between her and the kidnapper was screwed up in ways she hadn't immediately recognized (like the fact that they had been celebrating Carter's "birthday" on the anniversary of her abduction), and slowly accepts her family again.

** Early colonists in North America told accounts of white women who were kidnapped by Native Americans during raids on settlements who chose to [[GoingNative stay with the natives]] and even resisted attempts to rescue them. One of the most famous accounts is that of Eunice Williams, the daughter of a minister who was taken captive by the Mohawk along with her family in 1704 and given to a Mohawk family who had lost their own child and [[ReplacementGoldfish raised her as their daughter]]. While her family was released after a few years, the tribe and Eunice each refused to part with the other, as she had already assimilated into the tribe and they had come to love her as one of their own; throughout the rest of her life, Eunice (who by then was going by the name of Marguerite) rejected multiple attempts by her family to bring her back. In some sense, one could say that the reverse happened with Pocahontas, who was whisked off to England but did all right for herself there.

** Early colonists in North America told accounts of white women who were kidnapped by Native Americans during raids on settlements who chose to [[GoingNative stay with the natives]] and even resisted attempts to rescue them. One of the most famous accounts is that of Eunice Williams, the daughter of a minister who was taken captive by the Mohawk along with her family in 1704 and given to a Mohawk family who had lost their own child and [[ReplacementGoldfish raised her as their daughter]]. While her family was released after a few years, Eunice refused to go with them, having already assimilated into the tribe (although the tribe wasn't keen on her leaving either). In some sense, one could say that the reverse happened with Pocahontas, who was whisked off to England but did all right for herself there.

* In ''Manga/RealAccount'' a guy torments Yuuma (one of the {{Deuteragonist}}s) in his own twisted for love for most of the second part. Yuuma later snaps[[spoiler: or has a SplitPersonality]] and beats him up both [[MindRape psychologically]] and with his fists, and one [[SympathyForTheDevil almost feel sorry]] for the guy as he cries for his mother[[spoiler: who committed {{suicide}}]]. Later as a gang comes to kill Yuuma, the guy comes along and seemingly has fallen in love with him even more. [[spoiler: Even Yuuma's SuperpoweredEvilSide is {{squick}}ed [[EvenEvilHasStandards out by this]]]].

* In ''Manga/RealAccount'' a guy torments Yuuma (one of the Dual Protagonists) in his own FoeYay twisted for love for most of the second part. Yuuma later snaps[[spoiler: or has a SplitPersonality]] and beats him up both [[MindRape psychologically]] and with his fists, and one [[SympathyForTheDevil almost feel sorry]] for the guy as he cries for his mother[[spoiler: who committed {{suicide}}]]. Later as a gang comes to kill Yuuma, the guy comes along and seemingly has fallen in love with him even more. [[spoiler: Even Yuuma's SuperpoweredEvilSide is {{squick}}ed [[EvenEvilHasStandards out by this]]]].

* In ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', decades before the Stockholm bank robbery occurred, Christine falls in love with Erik after he kidnaps her, drugs her, and locks her in his house for two weeks -- all this after three months of him acting as her MailerDaemon and gradually growing more verbally abusive and aggressive. Raoul is saddened but not the least bit surprised that she loves a man she's (understandably) terrified of, and Christine comes to her senses long enough to tell Raoul to take her away from Erik once and for all NoMatterHowMuchIBeg.

* ''[[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Rebel Force: Uprising]]'' features Luke Skywalker captured by Soresh, who has developed a method for destroying someone's memories and reprogramming them to become his loyal emotionless assassins, via injected serums and loads of ColdBloodedTorture. Naturally, he starts using them on Luke, who is there for two weeks. He has Luke tortured at all times that Soresh is not in the cell with him, so that when Soresh visits the pain stops; sometimes Soresh gives Luke water or a piece of fruit, too, deliberately trying to invoke this trope. It works initially, but Soresh failed to account for TheForce.

* ''Film/BerlinSyndrome'': Clare seems to be suffering from a bit of this at times, as she becomes friendly with Andi and even has sex with him after he starts holding her captive. It's unsurprising, since she's also probably desperate for any affection in the situation, plus she'd felt attraction toward him before. Likely the source of the film's name.

** Several young kidnapping victims, like [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Stayner Steven Stayner]], [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Smart Elizabeth Smart]], [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_J._Devlin Shawn Hornbeck]], and [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaycee_Lee_Dugard Jaycee Lee Dugard]], have been described as defending their captors. While it's true that many of them were reluctant to escape or otherwise cooperated with their captors, even when given the opportunity to do so, this is more attributable to a survival instinct than to actually growing to ''like'' their captors. Many of them have vehemently denied that they suffer from Stockholm Syndrome and said in no uncertain terms that they ''hate'' their captors. Here's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C520Vwryn6s an interview with Dugard]] in which she voices her distaste for the hypothesis. Meanwhile, some cite [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_McElroy_(kidnapping_victim) Mary McElroy]], who really did openly plead for her kidnappers not to be executed and [[DrivenToSuicide killed herself]] in despair, but she doesn't exactly fit the profile, in part because her story didn't really add up[[note]]First, she was held captive for only a day, hardly enough time to go to develop feelings to that extreme. Second, during her trial she had some difficulty even identifying her kidnappers. Third, her suicide note suggests that all four of them had been executed -- but none were given the death penalty, one had been released from prison at the time of her suicide, and another hadn't even been tried yet[[/note]]; hers might be a case of a more severe mental illness.

** The third is Kakuzu of the Waterfall, who tried to assassinate one of Konoha's founders only to be imprisonned and exiled in absentia by his clan for his failure. He was left so traumatized by his elders' betrayal that Uchiha Sakurajima swooping in to seduce and ultimately marry him met no resistance whatsoever.

* A non-traditional example occurs on the ''LetsPlay/DreamSMP'' with Tommy's Exile in Season 2. It's non-traditional since Tommy has technically been exiled and not kidnapped[[labelnote:*]]Though some fans think otherwise, believing Exile to be a kidnapping in all but name, because the initial conditions for Exile was that Tommy was to be exiled from the borders of L'Manburg, but [[BigBad Dream]] imposed his own restrictions on where Tommy could go without L'Manburgian consent[[/labelnote]], but nonetheless this seems to be [[InvokedTrope what Dream is trying to induce]]. After isolating Tommy from everyone, Dream manipulates and lies to Tommy, leading the boy to believe that no one cares about him anymore — especially [[HeterosexualLifePartners Tubbo]]. Dream is quick to follow up on these moments by keeping Tommy company or being oddly friendly with him, claiming to be Tommy's only friend. Combine that with the fact that Dream is actively trying to keep other people away from Tommy (such as him [[InvokedTrope neglecting to]] [[OnePersonBirthdayParty hand out invites for Tommy's beach party]]), it's no surprise that Tommy started clinging to Dream despite how awfully he treats him. Even after running away and realizing what Dream was trying to pull on him, Tommy still had conflicting thoughts about Dream, occasionally referring to him as a friend and calling out for Dream when he's stressed despite knowing that Dream would try to kill him for running away from exile, and still occasionally shows signs that he was conditioned to be NotUsedToFreedom.

* DiscussedTrope in Spanish series ''Series/LaCasaDePapel'', after a hostage and one of the HeistTeam develop feelings for one another.

* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'': Debatable. Sheryl’s first encounter with the UnscrupulousHero Akira was him only barely avoiding shooting her because it’d be a waste of ammo to kill a non-combatant. In their following interactions, Akira gives her repeated death threats and forces her to go along with being a puppet gang leader, which causes her to break down in a few HeroicBSOD moments. In the second one, Akira comforts her and holds her for a day belatedly telling her he’ll protect her. After that, Sheryl’s clearly in love with Akira while he [[SugarAndIcePersonality bounces between extreme coldness and warm admiration]] for her GuileHero talents, with Sheryl doing everything she can to help him as a DoggedNiceGirl while he gets occasional TraumaButton panic attacks out of fear of falling into a HoneyTrap from her.

* This was the subject of a 1970s TV-movie called ''Film/SweetHostage'', with Creator/MartinSheen as the abductor and Creator/LindaBlair as his victim.

* This was the subject of a 1970s TV-movie called ''Film/SweetHostage'', with Creator/MartinSheen as the abductor and Creator/LindaBlair as his victim.

* This was the subject of a 1970s TV-movie called ''Sweet Hostage'', with Creator/MartinSheen as the abductor and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Blair Linda Blair]] as his victim.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Marilith}}'', the titular assassin's apprentice, a young Japanese girl named Kimiko, started out as a serious case of Stockholm Syndrome before she managed to drag her captor into LimaSyndrome as well (in the prequel Krakow 2.0), after Marilith kidnapped the girl to ransom her back to her wealthy father. Her affections were somewhat nuanced by the fact that she's a [[SchoolgirlLesbians Japanese schoolgirl]], mind...

* In many productions of ''Literature/TheAbductionFromTheSeraglio'', Konstanze is shown to grow very fond of Pasha Selim who holds her captive. It helps that a) before that, he rescued her and her HiredHelpAsFamily servants from pirates and b) he treats them very well and is a generally good-hearted man if with an explosive temper and [[LoveMakesYouEvil too passionately in love with Konstanze]]. Not to mention that, as his is a non-singing part, the directors are free to cast any attractive and/or charismatic actor without considering the voice type. For extra irony, the ShipTease with Selim usually happens when Konstanze is singing how she’ll never be inconstant to Belmonte.

* In many productions of ''The Abduction from the Seraglio'', Konstanze is shown to grow very fond of Pasha Selim who holds her captive. It helps that a) before that, he rescued her and her HiredHelpAsFamily servants from pirates and b) he treats them very well and is a generally good-hearted man if with an explosive temper and [[LoveMakesYouEvil too passionately in love with Konstanze]]. Not to mention that, as his is a non-singing part, the directors are free to cast any attractive and/or charismatic actor without considering the voice type. For extra irony, the ShipTease with Selim usually happens when Konstanze is singing how she’ll never be inconstant to Belmonte.
** The 2003 Liceu production, also recorded in 2010, takes it UpToEleven by having the syndrome affect not just Konstanze, but her fiery maid Blonde (who usually is too busy playing pranks on her captor Osmin to consider developing any tender feelings towards him). Konstanze shares a passionate kiss with Selim and barely restrains herself from continuing it. Blonde [[ValuesResonance lectures Osmin on feminism]], as usual, but her expressions and body language show that she is clearly attracted to him (for instance, she sits on his lap herself and giggles happily when he caresses her), and rather than making fun of him as she usually does, she grows angry and sad that he can’t understand women value their freedom.

This can develop in kidnapping victims, political prisoners, and prisoners of war; or hostage situations when there is a long standoff with police (like the ever-popular bank robbery situation). [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers It can also happen]] in [[DomesticAbuse abusive]] [[MaritalRapeLicense marriages or relationships]], and has even been known to happen in prisons between prisoners and wardens.

** There are a number of England/Japan fics that are all about pirate!England abducting/kidnapping an unwilling Japan at swordpoint as his "possession" or "treasure", being pretty much a [[ManipulativeBastard domineering]], [[IfICantHaveYou possessive]] [[BastardBoyfriend bastard]] to Japan's [[{{Wimpification}} wimpified]] self (as quoted from one such fic: "Listen to me Kiku...you may struggle, you may rebel, you may try and fight back, but know this: I ''always'' get what I want in the end. And what I want, is you. I will break you down if I have to, love, so consider yourself warned."), and Japan of course falling in love with him nonetheless. There's even a pretty famous England/Japan [[FanVid MAD]] titled "Beautiful Dreamer" that's a visual version of this kind of fic, with more than one commenter pointing out its UnfortunateImplications.

* ''Fanfic/TheBridge'' has an example that is exaggerated, defied, and justified. The Sirens and and the Dark Hunters kidnap [[spoiler:Princess Twilight Sparkle, after menacing her friends, after they mistake her for her human counterpart, who has stolen Sonata's heart. Seeing how badly Sonata was traumatized, and how much both groups care about her, as well as grasping at how it was a logical but huge misunderstanding Princess Twilight not only decides to help them, but willingly works with them to find her human counterpart. She lies to Gloriosa that she had always been their friend, and eventually offers Adagio the chance to return to Equestria, with the only quid pro quo that they don't kill anyone. It is justified however in that the sirens and hunters never do anything malicious to her, give her a lot of freedom, and X and Gigan, the very two who kidnapped her, apologize for it. Twilight for her part stays to help moderate them by her influence, making the best of the situation while not excusing her captors actions. It's obvious no one really wants to keep her captive, they just can't release her without risking an irate Mothra and Celestia coming in guns blazing for vengence]].