After her ordeal was over, Kristin [Enmark] publicly slammed the police for putting her life in danger. She also refused to testify against both men in court.
Nils Bejerot, the police psychiatrist involved in the siege, never spoke to Kristin directly, but he diagnosed her with a condition he invented.
Calling the proposed condition "Norrmalmstorg syndrome," which came to be known outside Sweden as Stockholm syndrome, Bejerot claimed that Kristin in particular was brainwashed by her captor.
"It is to be expected that, after a point, a bond of friendship springs up between victims and their captors," he said in 1974.
Despite its fame, Stockholm syndrome has never been included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
The handbook used by healthcare professionals in the United States and much of the world is considered the authoritative guide on the treatment of mental conditions.
Jess Hill, an investigative journalist who focuses on gendered violence, researched the origins of Stockholm syndrome for her book See What You Made Me Do.
"[Bejerot] made the assumption based purely on what he'd observed from an outsider's perspective, that they had a syndrome without there being any diagnostic criteria, without there being any type of study — and that's the basis upon which Stockholm syndrome is born."
"It's really easy to say, 'They must have Stockholm syndrome,' because it's comforting to think that there must be a syndrome that explains why victims act like this. And it's also a way of saying, 'I would never act like that.'"
Even Jan-Erik [Olsson, the bank robber] himself admits that by building a rapport with him, his hostages probably saved their own lives.
"They made it hard to kill. They made us go on living together day after day, like goats in that filth. There was nothing to do but get to know each other," he said a year after the robbery.
Dr [Allan] Wade[, a Canadian therapist who has spoken at length with Kristin about her experiences] does not believe Stockholm syndrome exists.
"Stockholm syndrome became a way of silencing an indignant, angry, exhausted, courageous young woman who was speaking about the realities of the events from her point of view," he said.
"It has nothing to do with the psychology of Kristin Enmark. It was a silencing strategy."
As you may have noticed recently.
See also, also, also.