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The bizarre siege behind Stockholm Syndrome

The siege that inspired the controversial Stockholm Syndrome theory began this week in 1973. In a 1980 BBC documentary, two New York police negotiators explained its influence.

The term Stockholm Syndrome was coined in the aftermath of the siege by Swedish criminologist and psychiatrist Nils Bejerot to explain the apparently irrational affection that some captives felt for their hostage-takers. While he didn't get the money or the car, psychiatrist Nils Bejerot advised police to acquiesce to his request that Clark Olofsson, one of Sweden's most infamous criminals, be brought to the bank in Stockholm's Norrmalmstorg Square. Dr Wade said that during the siege, the prisoner "was actually working in a way to try to make some of the people feel safer, and if you treat Clark Olofsson as though he was simply another one of the captors, you would have a very difficult time understanding why Kristin or others might have some sense of a positive recollection of him".

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