Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-21T08:26:22.047Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Stockholm Syndrome in Athletics: A Paradox

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 June 2018

Charles Bachand  and
Nikki Djak
Charles Bachand*
Affiliation:
University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida
Nikki Djak
Affiliation:
University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida
*
address for correspondence: Charles Bachand, University of Central Florida, 112 Rock Lake Road Longwood, 32750 Florida. E-mail: charles.bachand@knights.ucf.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

While it may, at first, appear absurd to associate Stockholm syndrome with situations other than those involving kidnapping or hostage relationships, it is quite tenable to do so. In fact, research has shown that a variety of different psychological issues and forms of captivity are best explained as instances of Stockholm syndrome. Originally, Stockholm syndrome was typified as a disorder resulting from situations involving negative face-to-face contact between captors and captives. The resulting environment is one of extreme fright or terror to victims, rendering them helpless and, over time, totally subservient to their perpetrators. Typification helps to shed light on the connection between abusive athletic coaches and consequential victimisation of young athletes, which can lead to Stockholm syndrome. This correlation supports the view that Stockholm syndrome relates to victimisation of young athletes in a paradoxical, but very real way. This concept paper addresses the potential for domain expansion of Stockholm syndrome into the area of youth athletics. It develops the theory that once youth begin to rationalise the actions of abusive athletic coaches, they begin to sympathise and defend the actions of the abusive coach leading to a pattern of events which can be labelled as indications of Stockholm syndrome.

Keywords

coachingpsychologyeducationabusehostage
Type
Commentaries
Information
Children Australia , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , September 2018 , pp. 175 - 180
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adorjan, M., Christensen, T., Kelly, B., & Pawluch, D. (2012). Stockholm syndrome as vernacular resource. The Sociological Quarterly, 53 (3), 454–474. doi: 10.1111/j.1533-8525.2012.01241.x.Google Scholar
Auerbach, S. M., Kiesler, D. J., Strentz, T., Schmidt, J. A., & Serio, C. D. (1994). Interpersonal impacts and adjustment to the stress of simulated captivity: An empirical test of the Stockholm syndrome. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 13 (2), 207–221. doi: 10.1521/jscp.1994.13.2.207.Google Scholar
Best, J. (1995). Typification and social problems construction. In Best, J. (Ed.), Images of issues: Typifying contemporary social problems (pp. 3–10). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
Blow, C. M. (2013, April 3). Calm down, coaches. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/04/opinion/blow-is-coach-rices-behavior-typical.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fcharles-m-blow&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=search&contentPlacement=5&pgtype=collection&_r=0Google Scholar
Bracha, H. S. (2006). Human brain evolution and the “Neuroevolutionary time-depth principle”: Implications for the reclassification of fear-circuitry-related traits in DSM-V and for studying resilience to warzone-related posttraumatic stress disorder. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 30 (5), 827–853. doi: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2006.01.008.Google Scholar
Cantor, C., & Price, J. (2007). Traumatic entrapment, appeasement and complex post-traumatic stress disorder: Evolutionary perspectives of hostage reactions, domestic abuse and the Stockholm syndrome. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 41 (5), 377–384. doi: 10.1080/00048670701261178.Google Scholar
David, P. (2005). Human rights in youth sport: A critical review of children's rights in competitive sports. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
de Fabrique, N., Van Hasselt, V. B., Vecchi, G. M., & Romano, S. J. (2007). Common variables associated with the development of Stockholm Syndrome: Some case examples. Victims & Offenders, 2 (1), 91–98. doi: 10.1080/15564880601087266.Google Scholar
Farley, J. E. (1987). American social problems: An institutional analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Freud, A. (1936). Identification with the aggressor. The ego and the mechanisms of defense, 117–131.Google Scholar
Finkelhor, D., & Ormrod, R. (2000). Characteristics of crimes against juveniles. Juvenile Justice Bulletin-NCJ179034 (pp. 1–11). Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. Retrieved from https://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=ccrcGoogle Scholar
Gongol, B. (2004). When to Negotiate with Terrorists, Hi-jackers, and Kidnappers. http://www.gongol.com/research/negotiationwithterrorists/Google Scholar
Holbrook, D. (2010). Using the Qur'an to justify terrorist violence: analysing selective application of the Qur'an in English-Language militant islamist discourse. Perspectives on Terrorism, 4(3).Google Scholar
Herman, J. L. (1992). Complex PTSD: A syndrome in survivors of prolonged and repeated trauma. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 5 (3), 377–391. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Judith_Herman/publication/240129278_Complex_PTSD_A_Syndrome_in_Survivors_of_Prolonged_and_Repeated_Trauma/links/54af023c0cf29661a3d43964/Complex-PTSD-A-Syndrome-in-Survivors-of-Prolonged-and-Repeated-Trauma.pdfGoogle Scholar
Jameson, C. (2010). The ‘short step’ from love to hypnosis: A reconsideration of the Stockholm syndrome. Journal for Cultural Research, 14 (4), 337–355. doi: 10.1080/14797581003765309.Google Scholar
Kirby, S., Greaves, L., & Hankivsky, O. (2000). The dome of silence: Sexual harassment and abuse in sport. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Fernwood Publishing.Google Scholar
Kuleshnyk, I. (1984). The Stockholm syndrome: Toward an understanding. Social Action & the Law, 10 (2), 37–42.Google Scholar
Pinheiro, M. C., Pimenta, N., Resende, R., & Malcolm, D. (2014). Gymnastics and child abuse: An analysis of former international Portuguese female artistic gymnasts. Sport, Education and Society, 19 (4), 435–450. doi: 10.1080/13573322.2012.679730.Google Scholar
Ryan, J. (1995). Little girls in pretty boxes: The making and breaking of elite gymnasts and figure skaters. New York, NY, USA: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Smullens, S. (2007). Five cycles of emotional abuse: Codification and treatment of an invisible malignancy. Boston, MA: National Association of Social Workers, Massachusetts Chapter. Retrieved from http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.naswma.org/resource/resmgr/imported/FCE_emotionalAbuse.pdfGoogle Scholar
Stafford, A., Alexander, K., & Fry, D. (2015). ‘There was something that wasn't right because that was the only place I ever got treated like that’: Children and young people's experiences of emotional harm in sport. Childhood, 22 (1), 121–137. doi: 10.1177/090756821 3505625.Google Scholar
Stirling, A. E., Bridges, E. J., Cruz, E. L., & Mountjoy, M. L. (2011). Canadian academy of sport and exercise medicine position paper: Abuse, harassment, and bullying in sport. Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, 21 (5), 385–391. doi: 10.1097/JSM.0b013e31820f9248.Google Scholar
Stirling, A. E., & Kerr, G. A. (2009). Abused athletes' perception of the coach-athlete relationship. Sport in Society, 12 (2), 227–239. doi: 10.1080/17430430802591019.Google Scholar
Swigonski, N. L., Enneking, B. A., & Hendrix, K. S. (2014). Bullying behavior by athletic coaches. Pediatrics, 133 (2), 273–275. doi: 10.1542/peds.2013-3146.Google Scholar
Symonds, M. (1980). Victim responses to terror. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 347 (1), 129–136. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1980.tb21262.x.Google Scholar
Tomlinson, A., & Yorganci, I. (1997). Male coach/female athlete relations: Gender and power relations in competitive sport. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 21 (2), 134–155.Google Scholar
Vecchi, G. M. (2009). Conflict and crisis communication: Workplace and school violence, Stockholm syndrome, and abnormal psychology. Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association, 12 (3), 30–39. Retrieved from https://login.ezproxy.net.ucf.edu/login?auth=shibb&url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=psyh&AN=2009-17822-005&site=ehost-liveGoogle Scholar