Post by Admin on Feb 12, 2024 17:10:42 GMT
Psychological Slavery
Understanding the complexity of psychological slavery.
www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/family-secrets/201405/psychological-slavery
According to relevant literature, slavery has been a legal institution in which one person (the slave) is the property of another (the master). Slavery dates back to ancient times, but contemporary international treaties (Slavery Convention of 1926) consider slavery a crime against humanity.
However, slavery and human exploitation still exist. Along with them, we are left with a legacy of psychological slavery that we see in many homes where highly abusive relationships prevail.
Many studies in the field of psychology and sociology explain psychological slavery based on an incident that occurred in 1973, where two robbers entered a bank in Stockholm, Sweden with guns and dynamite, took four hostages—three women and a man—and held them hostage for 131 hours. After their rescue, the hostages showed a peculiar behavior. These people who had been threatened, abused, and intimidated felt gratitude towards their captors and tried to protect them when expert investigations were made. One of the women became emotionally attached to one of the assailants and another began a campaign to raise funds for the legal defense of the criminals.
As strange as it sounds, similar situations occur in daily life with abused children, battered women in relationships, prisoners of war, victims of incest, and generally in families where there is physical and/or emotional abuse.
The explanation lies in our survival instinct, described here as Stockholm syndrome. When the lives of victims depend on the action of their assailants, the emotional reactions of some victims turn into gratitude once they survive, just as slaves may have also expressed gratitude when they were given their freedom. Similarly, in many contemporary families the victims, feeling hopeless, develop positive feelings toward the abuser or controller, rationalize to accept such behavior, react negatively to family or friends who try to rescue them, and have difficulty freeing themselves from this emotional trap.
For psychological slavery to occur, research studies have found four typical situations:
Perception of a threat, physical or psychological, and the conviction that misfortune can really occur;
Appreciation of small acts of kindness by the abuser towards the victim;
Isolation from others;
Conviction that one is unable to escape the situation.
Understanding the complexity of psychological slavery.
www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/family-secrets/201405/psychological-slavery
According to relevant literature, slavery has been a legal institution in which one person (the slave) is the property of another (the master). Slavery dates back to ancient times, but contemporary international treaties (Slavery Convention of 1926) consider slavery a crime against humanity.
However, slavery and human exploitation still exist. Along with them, we are left with a legacy of psychological slavery that we see in many homes where highly abusive relationships prevail.
Many studies in the field of psychology and sociology explain psychological slavery based on an incident that occurred in 1973, where two robbers entered a bank in Stockholm, Sweden with guns and dynamite, took four hostages—three women and a man—and held them hostage for 131 hours. After their rescue, the hostages showed a peculiar behavior. These people who had been threatened, abused, and intimidated felt gratitude towards their captors and tried to protect them when expert investigations were made. One of the women became emotionally attached to one of the assailants and another began a campaign to raise funds for the legal defense of the criminals.
As strange as it sounds, similar situations occur in daily life with abused children, battered women in relationships, prisoners of war, victims of incest, and generally in families where there is physical and/or emotional abuse.
The explanation lies in our survival instinct, described here as Stockholm syndrome. When the lives of victims depend on the action of their assailants, the emotional reactions of some victims turn into gratitude once they survive, just as slaves may have also expressed gratitude when they were given their freedom. Similarly, in many contemporary families the victims, feeling hopeless, develop positive feelings toward the abuser or controller, rationalize to accept such behavior, react negatively to family or friends who try to rescue them, and have difficulty freeing themselves from this emotional trap.
For psychological slavery to occur, research studies have found four typical situations:
Perception of a threat, physical or psychological, and the conviction that misfortune can really occur;
Appreciation of small acts of kindness by the abuser towards the victim;
Isolation from others;
Conviction that one is unable to escape the situation.