• Question: Is 'Stockholm Syndrome' possible in abusive parenting?

    Asked by mashiyath to Ben, Sam, Rose on 22 Jun 2017.
    • Photo: Sam Carr

      Sam Carr answered on 22 Jun 2017:


      Well, some similar features are possible. I know for sure that lots of abused children experience really conflicted feelings towards their abusive parents. On the one hand, they love them – because they are their parents. They desperately need them, they need their love, and they hold out hope that they will get it – if they just work out how to “be” so that their parent will love them. But at the same time, that very parent, the one who you wish would love you – is the cause of great fear, great pain, and really horrible anxiety and negative emotion. That sort of conflicted, mixed up, confusing relationship can be the reality for many abused children.

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