Norrmalmstorg

Most of his life, he spent like an regular Joe. Now almost 80, Olsson has recently retired. 

Back in the day, he opened an automobile repair shop which did decent business. 

Before that, he also ran a supermarket for a few years in Thailand with his wife. Moderately enterprising at best.

Things weren't so linear a few decades ago for him. He was a small time crook but till then quite unremarkable. This was about to change.

In the early 1970s, while in prison for petty crimes, he befriended Clark Olofsson, a known bank robber. He was awestruck by Olofsson. 

Olofsson was touted as a celebrity gangster. Amongst his many eccentric escapades, one was where Olofsson entered the Swedish Prime Minister's personal estate and stole grapes and tomatos from it. No wonder he found himself in prison more than your average felon.

Let's get back to our protagonist, Mr Olsson. Jan Erik Olsson, who was now ready for a bank robbery, thanks to his mentor Olofsson's training.

In August 1973, Olsson entered a Bank in Stockholm, the Swedish capital with a submachine gun. Chaos ensued

Although during the robbery, Olsson shot and wounded several police officers, none were critically wounded.

While negotiating his ransom, he got to speak with the Prime Minister. I wonder how the conversation went, 

"Hello Mr Prime Minister, these are all my demands. Also, the guy, Olofsson, who stole YOUR grapes & tomatoes, I want him freed"

The PM may not have found Olsson's demands entirely reasonable. The robbery was unsuccessful. 

Police deployed gas, barged in and freed the hostages. Olsson was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

But that's not the interesting part of the story.

During the robbery, Olsson held 3 women and one man in captivity, as hostages. None of the hostages testified against him in court.

There was no proof of any coercion post robbery. Infact, surprisingly, they raised money for Olsson's defense.

Nils Bejerot, psychiatrist, later described this as a form of brainwashing. The term he coined was the Norrmalmstorg (normamstorg:) syndrome.

Also known as the Stockholm Syndrome, very commonly and sometimes loosely used in regular conversation nowadays.

Formally this syndrome is defined as

"A condition in which hostages develop a psychological bond with their captors during captivity".

In these cases, the victim/patient is said to be in absolute denial. If they are confronted, they often lose control and act out.

POWs and kidnap victims often show this behavior. Some recover painfully and slowly, many don't. 

Those who recover often recount it as an incredibly vivid bad dream.

Turns out the more agreeable and young we are, stronger is our denial to being victims of this syndrome.

Could we take a step back and think we're all denying something? Have we bonded with our captors?

Let me take a sudden and abrupt leap. I must.

Aren't we taken hostage the moment we're born? Our minds certainly are. We become prisoners to several entirely made up social structures.

Our compliance buys us a few moments of ease. A small bribe for such a heavy loss.

We are all dreaming. A rude awakening is in order.