Strange

I'm not arguing that my behavior is strange. But the bipolar bullshit has to stop. How anyone who knows me cannot recognize trauma responses and ptsd by now, I have no damn clue. It couldnt be more obvious than if it hit you like a brick. Seriously. 2 comas??? Hello??? Anyone home? Maybe not threatening people is a good avoid to avoid symptoms of paranoia. Maybe not being hostile and dishonest is a good way to establish and maintain trust. It's not funny. You're not helping. Don't call me, mip. I've got the PA now. Leave it be. Dont do a come hither with some medication you won't even name. Destroys trust.

Polyvagal Theory

Appeasement: replacing Stockholm syndrome as a definition of a survival strategy

Rebecca Bailey a,CONTACT, Jaycee Dugard a, Stefanie F Smith a, Stephen W Porges b,c

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PMCID: PMC9858395 PMID: 37052112

ABSTRACT

Background: Stockholm syndrome or traumatic bonding (Painter & Dutton, Patterns of emotional bonding in battered women: Traumatic bonding. International Journal of Women’s Studies, 8(4), 363–375, 1985) has been used in mainstream culture, legal, and some clinical settings to describe a hypothetical phenomenon of trauma survivors developing powerful emotional attachments to their abuser. It has frequently been used to explain the reported ‘positive bond’ between some kidnap victims and their captor's, although scarce empirical research has supported this assertion. It has been used in various situations where interpersonal violence and mind control are reported and where clear power differentials exist, such as in child sexual abuse, intimate partner violence, human trafficking, and hostage situation scenarios.

Objective: We propose replacing Stockholm syndrome with ‘appeasement,’ a term that can be explained through a biopsychological model (i.e. Polyvagal Theory) to describe how survivors may appear emotionally connected with their perpetrators to effectively adapt to life-threatening situations by calming the perpetrator.

Conclusion: We believe the term appeasement will demystify the reported survivor experiences and will, in the eyes of the public, victims, and survivors, provide a science-based explanation for their narratives of survival that may initially appear to be contradictory. By understanding the potent reflexive neurobiological survival mechanisms embedded in appeasement, individuals and families can operationalise their survival from a perspective that supports resilience, a healthy long-term recovery, and normalises their coping responses as survival techniques.

KEYWORDS: Stockholm syndrome, appeasement, survival, resilience, polyvagal theory

HIGHLIGHTS

Changing and redefining how victims are viewed and portrayed in mainstream media.

Appeasement emphasises the asymmetry and adaptive strategy used to regulate and calm the captor, thus minimising potential injury and abuse.

Stockholm syndrome does not reflect the survivor’s experience nor does it acknowledge the negative impact that the label has on the survivor.

1. Critique of Stockholm syndrome

Words can carry strong messages about intentionality, motivation, and healing. Consider the recent awareness around the use of victim versus survivor. Some people choose to use the word victim when describing life-threatening traumatic experiences, while others prefer the word survivor, warrior, or victor. What is important is that individuals who have experienced these traumas have a voice in how they refer to themselves and that the words we use accurately reflect their lived experiences.

One particularly problematic term for survivors of kidnapping, as well as trafficking, interpersonal violence, and sexual abuse is ‘Stockholm syndrome’. Stockholm syndrome was originally proposed when trying to explain why some survivors of hostage-type situations do not, to the outside observer, appear to react to their situation with fight or flight, and furthermore seem to sympathise with their perpetrator as supposedly evidenced by lack of cooperation with police, and expression of understanding or lack of expression of hostility toward their perpetrator. The term has since been used in other traumatic situations in which there are power imbalances such as kidnapping, and abusive relationships. The word Stockholm syndrome postulates a positive emotional relationship between victims and abusers that developed because of the trauma (Jülich, 2005). This term persists despite several critiques.

First, Stockholm syndrome has been interpreted to assume that there is a relationship between perpetrator and victim that reflects mutual care and affection between them, but that mutuality does not exist in cases of abduction, abuse, and perceived life threat (Graham et al., 1988). Furthermore, Stockholm syndrome attempts to explain survival from captivity as a formula derived from the perpetrator or observer's perspective (Namnyak et al., 2008). The variables include: the perceived threat to survival; the belief the threat will be carried out; the captive perceives some small kindness from the captor; and the hostage experiences the perceived inability to escape. Each of these perspectives requires a level of conscious processing that contradicts what occurs physiologically during a terror state. These conceptual difficulties with Stockholm syndrome may explain why a review of the professional literature on survival techniques utilised during violent crimes (Jordan, 2013) demonstrates a lack of validated criteria for Stockholm syndrome as a psychiatric diagnosis along with a limited empirical research base (Geisler et al., 2013). The concept's origin in the media rather than research or clinical practice and its application to various crimes, ages, and interpersonal contexts raise questions about its meaning, validity, and continued relevance to theory building and research (Namnyak et al., 2008).

Although past theorists have suggested that the concept of Stockholm syndrome may help normalise survivors’ behaviour (Graham et al., 1988), it can be argued that the term does not reflect survivor experience, a critique not yet reported in the professional literature. A more accurate term would be ‘appeasement’ because the word and overall description of appeasement emphasise the asymmetry in the relationship and the adaptive strategy to regulate and calm the captor, thus minimising potential injury and abuse to the victim (Treisman, 2004).

Using the Polyvagal Theory’s (Porges, 2011) assertion of the fundamental drive to internalise a sense of safety through sociality (Porges, 2022), we propose that the term appeasement may be operationally defined to more accurately describe a powerful instinctual strategy to survive and thrive regardless of the circumstances that can be separated from the concept of mutual affection and bonding with the perpetrator. This perspective can be applied to a variety of populations where the power differential and basic survival needs perpetuate abuse and victimisation regardless of the previous relationship with the perpetrator.

2. A brief history of appeasement as a response to threat

Cantor and Price (2007) introduced the concept of appeasement, proposing that it is a natural mammalian response to entrapment or confinement. They suggested that appeasement could contribute to a better understanding of PTSD, Stockholm syndrome, and hostage dynamics. They proposed a step in articulating the normalisation of a shutdown process and suggested implications for further understanding of victim dynamics. From their perspective, appeasement was a pacification and submission response. Since appeasement may serve to de-escalate a situation, it was suggested that the resulting pacification could contribute to survival. Although we reject the definition of Stockholm syndrome, Cantor and Prices’ appeasement concept helps operationalise dynamics present in circumstances where a victim perceives and experiences threat to physical and psychological survival, especially when there is social isolation.

However, the Cantor and Price formulation of appeasement misses the two-way functional interaction, with the beneficial neurobiological impact of co-regulation, between perpetrator and victim that is better understood in defining appeasement through the Polyvagal Theory. The Polyvagal Theory (Porges, 2004, 2021, 2022) suggests that when faced with a life threat the foundational survival circuits originating in the brainstem, which regulate bodily organs via the autonomic nervous system, take over moving the nervous system into a defensive state that supplants intentional behaviour and social interactions. This process is observed as a variation of the cascade of fight/flight/freeze and potentially collapse and shutdown. This defensive cascade is dependent on autonomic states that functionally divert neural activity from higher brain structure resulting in reducing problem-solving capacity, limiting cognitive processing, and displacing intentionality and authentic forms of sociality with defensive strategies. Basic survival needs can determine and impact an individual’s definition of life threat. For example, a parent facing housing and food insecurity can experience a lack of resources as a life threat. Social connection to the perpetrator may be experienced as a type of lifeline.

Patience

They tell me I have to be patient. That I have to be of sound mind. Reliable memory. And then there's Justice. But I got tired. Frustrated. Different people on different sides. PRISMA. PSYCHIATRISTS. COUNSELORS. COMMUNITY. FAMILY. SIDES. 

And here I am in the middle. People wondering what's going on. Me wondering where the law is on this. Because to me it's excessive. To me drugging someone up that high and teaching them they are dangerous and discouraging counseling is reckless endangerment and drug trafficking. It's creating mindless zombies that will buy guns. It's creating fear. Terror. Rage. PTSD. To me, that is psychological torture. 

I was suicidal at 13. I was drugged at 10. Therapies of different sorts in elementary school, continuing through middle school. My first Overdose at 17. Coma. Memorial. Wires. Delirium. RIPPING THE WIRES OUT. PEOPLE HOLDING ME DOWN. 

Prichards met me at 16. That was after Klanton. CBT. ADHD > Stimulants > ADHD COACHING > MIP PHP > KLANTON CBT > PRICHARDS > MIP INPATIENT > COMA > MIP INPATIENT > ALPHABET SOUP DIAGNOSES > OD #2 > MCCLEAN > OD #3, COMA #2 > MCCLEAN > LOST AND RIGGED > GREENVILLE > MEDICATION CITY > CITY CENTER COUNSELING > PTSD DX > PURCHASE OF .38 > SELLING .38 > MINDFUL UPSTATE > DID DX > PRICHARDS QUITS > IMA > BROWNELL > ARTSTICK > REDUCTION OF MEDS > CCBH > SPRINGBROOK > ARTSTICK ON MEDICAL > COFFEE > MIP > BACK TO BIPOLAR BS > REMEDICATED AGAIN > COFFEE > DECIDING I'VE HAD IT > FILING FBI REPORT > REDUCTION OF DX's (PRISMA Prompted me to remove problems from my problem list)

My PRISMA Dx's have been reduced from

BIPOLAR

PSYCHOSIS

DEPRESSION

PTSD

ADHD

AUTISM SPECTRUM

CAPD

and the physical 

to

DEPRESSION

PTSD

AUTISM SPECTRUM

CAPD (Kinda redundant with AS but anyways)

and the physical

And now if I can stay stable as I am and away from toxic people and continue therapy it's simply a legal thing about the saga of drugs, dx's, and trauma. Cleaning up a few dirty docs. Cuz this shit don't make sense. 

Other then a few nervous mental health professionals and family members and some anger, it seems better. Seriously though, Does this make any sense? How crazy is it to find someone with a problem, and then gigantically magnify that problem into this huge mess? Across multiple states? Referral city? Medication city? ECT? TMS? VNS? I'm not a cyborg. Well, technically yes. VNS. But I think we missed the boat here folks. But hey, Prichards is PROUD! I've got a Masters! annnnnnnnd... a very unstable life. Poor Physical health. extreme anger issues. And I scare people. Fantastic. 

You know, it's not really surprising to me that I have multiple personalities. It's amazing my body still works. My head's been zapped so many times, magnetized, pulsed from VNS... stimmed, drug city... all legal of course. Even the THC. Legal. But I'm not sure we're impressing anyone. And I'm angry and tired. And broke. And on disability since age 20. Congratulations, us. Really impressing people here. Right now, I'd take the ER's side. I'd be pissed at bringing a guy out of a coma for this. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. That reminds me. A warm shout out to BETH ISRAEL DEACONESS for coma #2. 

Thermometer

So now I spend my days trying to get from the 8-10 range (Anger, fury, Rage) to the 0-5 range. I need to be stable in the lower Polyvagal range so that this VNS device the state spent money on and the education and stuff can be worth it and so that the community can be calm and happy and so that the state can keep this from happening to anyone else. Medicalized perfectionism. Overeducation. Toxic work ethic. empty, medicated, permanently disabled useless burden on society. It seems like a good goal.

The hospital doesn't like me talking, so they play games. But they can't really stop me, name on buildings, state/federal observation, things like that. I do want this state to be safe. I do want no excessive prescribing. I don't know who checks this website, I only know people report back. I do know my counselor and my PA check it. I like people to feel safe. If I wanted people to be harmed, I would not have asked the FBI to monitor me. That would be the opposite of intelligent. As smart as you think I may be, believe me I am not smarter then a federal agency. I worked in taxes. You do not fuck around with these people. The IRS can run you over. SSA can do it too. The FBI? Those are the guys with the IT skills, the guns, and the badges. They can block this site, they can hack my computer, they can do many things. They can hack my phone. They know what I do. If I wanted people to be harmed, I could have done so a long time ago. That's not what I want. I do care about people. I've known many people. I hope my good eggs are proud of me. Because I'm doing this for them. People like Leaves and Elle. Kind people. Down to Earth people. Hardworking people. The ones out there in the community. I've been here 41 of 43 years. If I really wanted to hurt anyone, I would have done it by now. Don't believe the Psychiatrist lies. Don't believe the programming. Don't take the pills. Stay away from God complexes. There is no danger. I've got to be on every radar across this state. Just quietly. That's all. 

I need to calm my anger. Because once it gets down to the 1... then it's clean up time. Then I get to help make sure there's no excessive pills. That people are safe. I know they are watching. They've already disrupted my internet at least once. The slightest wrong move, and it's SWAT teams, badges, guns. Not that I expect a detail to follow me around, but you know, they learn things. I don't know how long and how many people have been watching. I was rather medicated. 

When I was little. Before everything. I wanted to be FBI. I applied there once. maybe twice. Forensic Accountant. I applied IRS. I was in IT. I know what they can do. I know what I started. I know they can help. Keep South Carolina Safe. So, if my awareness is correct, South Carolina doesn't need to worry. It will be safe. Less pills. No crooked doctors.