With the recent rescue of three young women in Cleveland, held for over a decade by a kidnapper, we are now subject to the useless speculations of the media.
Why the news media feels compelled to ask inane questions and foment greater misunderstandings isn't clear.
Of course, the greatest misunderstanding stems from raising the question of why these women didn't try to escape earlier, and invariably the Stockholm Syndrome is invoked.
This is the magical syndrome invoked by the news media every time such a situation occurs, despite the fact that the majority of kidnap victims do not suffer from Stockholm Syndrome. I suspect reporters believe that it somehow makes them sound more intelligent than the drivel they normally report.
So, here's a newsflash. Fear of punishment, fear of death, fear of physical harm is NOT the Stockholm Syndrome. None of these individuals has shown the slightest inclination of a positive attitude towards their captors, which is the defining element of Stockholm Syndrome.
There are enough horrific things that happen to people all over the world. Perhaps when such a situation has a more positive outcome, the media can restrain themselves from trying to second-guess and question the survivor's motives, and for once, refrain from a public display of their ignorance.
