Is Stockholm syndrome a myth?
- Ludmila Melnikoff
- Mar 8
- 4 min read
On August 23, 1973, Jan-Erik Olsson, an infamous bank robber walked into a Stockholm bank with a submachine gun, a knife, a transistor radio, explosives and lengths of rope to execute the greatest heist of his life. He took four female hostages, one of whom was the bank’s stenographer, Kristen Enmark, aged 23. His first demand was for the police to bring his former inmate, Clark Olofsson, a celebrity burglar in the criminal world with movie-star looks, from prison to the bank, which they did.
The four women and the two men were then holed up inside the cramped bank vault and the women quickly forged a strange bond with their abductors. The hostage situation lasted six days, and by the second day, the captives were on very friendly terms with “Clark and Jan”. Kristin Enmark was even given a bullet from one of the guns as a memento. She would later describe Clark as a mix between Che Guevara (the charismatic Cuban guerilla, also with movie-star looks) and Jesus.
Enmark even phoned Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, pleading with him to let the robbers take her with them in the escape car. “I fully trust Clark and the robber,” she assured Palme. “They haven’t done a thing to us. On the contrary, they have been very nice. But, you know, Olof, what I am scared of is that the police will attack and cause us to die.” So Enmark started to fantasize that Clark and Jan were her saviours and perceived that the police were the real threat.
Ultimately, the convicts did not harm the hostages, and on the night of August 28, after six days, the police pumped teargas into the vault against the wishes of the women, and the two men quickly surrendered. The police ordered the hostages to come out first, but the four captives, protecting their abductors to the very end, refused. Enmark yelled, “No, Jan and Clark go first—you’ll gun them down if we do!”
In the doorway of the vault, the convicts and hostages embraced and kissed. As Enmark was wheeled away on a stretcher, she shouted to the handcuffed Olofsson, “Clark, I will see you again.”
The hostages then regularly visited their two captors in prison. Kristin Enmark even lied in court when she said that she never saw Clark with a gun during the six days. She didn’t believe that he should have been imprisoned for his forced involvement. He was ultimately pardoned and released.
Stockholm syndrome is a proposed condition claiming that during a hostage situation, victims can become hopelessly attached to their captors and develop fantasies about them. Kristin Enmark is the first person in the world diagnosed with Stockholm syndrome, hence the name, but some question if the condition actually exists or is a myth.
I assure you the condition is real and is no myth. I was incarcerated in a Russian prison in Moscow at the age of 20 for overstaying my student visa back in 1980, after studying Russian at Moscow University. I was in solitary confinement and in hell. No one would even tell me when or if I would ever get out. One of the Russian guards started to be nice to me and would come into my cell and talk to me which was a blessing after being completely isolated and alone, locked in a cell with nothing to do.
On the fifth day, I begged him to bring me some paper and a pencil, so I could take diary notes of my experience. He did, and in return he kissed me and then fondled my breasts. I let him, as I was craving human affection. I started to think I was falling in love with him and that he was my saviour, my only hope. The next day I asked if he could bring me a packet of Marlboro cigarettes & matches, as I had been a chain smoker and was suffering from bad nicotine withdrawal. He did and I let him kiss me and fondle by breasts again. I then asked him to find out any news about my release – which he promised to do. After he left, I grabbed a cigarette and was devastated to discover that all the filters had been ripped off from the cigarettes. Nevertheless, I lit up and thoroughly enjoyed the smoke.
I couldn’t wait to see him the next day. I felt he was the center of my universe and the most important person to me in the world. He came again the next day, and I asked him why he had ripped off the filters from the cigarettes. He said, “Because if you put a match to a filter for long enough, it turns into a sharp object and you could cut your writs with it.” I was surprised but thought to myself that that is exactly what I would have done.
On the tenth day he told me that a representative from the Australian Embassy was coming to see me the very next day. I remember the overwhelming joy I felt. He started to kiss me, but then we heard another guard approaching my cell, so he fled. I never saw him again, but he helped me get through this ordeal and survive, and I loved him for that.
So yes, the Stockholm Syndrome is real and is a form of instinctive human self-preservation and survival.
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