End Of The Year Project

Front 1

6/5/07, How Stuff Works, How Fear Works, http://www.howstuffworks.com/fear.htm

Back 1

Fear is a chain reaction in the brain that starts with a stressful stimulus and ends with the release of chemicals that cause a racing heart, fast breathing and energized muscles, among other things, also known as the fight-or-flight response. The stimulus could be a spider, a knife at your throat, an auditorium full of people waiting for you to speak or the sudden thud of your front door against the door frame.

Front 2

6/5/07, How Stuff Works, How Brainwashing Works, http://people.howstuffworks.com/brainwashing.htm

Back 2

Because brainwashing is such an invasive form of influence, it requires the complete isolation and dependency of the subject, which is why you mostly hear of brainwashing occurring in prison camps or totalist cults. The agent (the brainwasher) must have complete control over the target (the brainwashee) so that sleep patterns, eating, using the bathroom and the fulfillment of other basic human needs depend on the will of the agent. In the brainwashing process, the agent systematically breaks down the target's identity to the point that it doesn't work anymore. The agent then replaces it with another set of behaviors, attitudes and beliefs that work in the target's current environment.

Front 3

6/5/07, How Stuff Works, How Brainwashing Works, http://people.howstuffworks.com/brainwashing.htm

Back 3

Some definitions of brainwashing require the presence of the threat of physical harm, and under these definitions most extremist cults do not practice true brainwashing since they typically do not physically abuse recruits. Other definitions rely on "nonphysical coercion and control" as an equally effective means of asserting influence. Regardless of which definition you use, many experts believe that even under ideal brainwashing conditions, the effects of the process are most often short-term -- the brainwashing victim's old identity is not in fact eradicated by the process, but instead is in hiding, and once the "new identity" stops being reinforced the person's old attitudes and beliefs will start to return.

Front 4

6/5/07, How Stuff Works, How Brainwashing Works, http://people.howstuffworks.com/brainwashing.htm

Back 4

Lifton ultimately defined a set of steps involved in the brainwashing cases he studied:

Assault on identity
Guilt
Self-betrayal
Breaking point
Leniency
Compulsion to confess
Channeling of guilt
Releasing of guilt
Progress and harmony
Final confession and rebirth

Front 5

6/5/07, Women's Web Ring, Societal Stockholm Syndrome http://web2.iadfw.net/ktrig246/out_of_cave/sss.html

Back 5

Virtually anyone can get Stockholm Syndrome it the following conditions are met:

Perceived threat to survival and the belief that one's captor is willing to act on that threat
The captive's perception of small kindnesses from the captor within a context of terror
Isolation from perspectives other than those of the captor
Perceived inability to escape.
Stockholm Syndrome is a survival mechanism.

Front 6

6/5/07, How Stuff Works, What Causes Stockholm Syndrome, http://people.howstuffworks.com/stockholm-syndrome.htm

Back 6

In order for Stockholm syndrome to occur in any given situation, at least three traits must be present:

A severely uneven power relationship in which the captor dictates what the prisoner can and cannot do
The threat of death or physical injury to the prisoner at the hands of the captor
A self-preservation instinct on the part of the prisoner

Front 7

6/5/07, Katina Krasnec, Stockholm Syndrome: Unequal Power Relationships, http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro04/web1/kkrasnec.html

Back 7

In an act of self-delusion, the victim of Stockholm Syndrome develops conditions in order to reassure themselves they will be protected or cared for. By creating a false emotional attachment and seeking praise and approval of their captor, they attempt to make a false reality for themselves, in which no harm can come to them. And by defending and/or protecting their captors from police or anyone who "comes to the rescue," they allow themselves to appear as if they have some control in a relationship which they really have no power. The value of their lives, which the captor grants, is seen as a sign of affection or love, and the captive wishes to reciprocate in order to maintain their own position at that time. By accepting a level of objectification that one should reject as a matter of basic human dignity, hostages or captives weaken their ability to control their emotions. This allows themselves to become malleable, thus becoming easily susceptible to the whims of their captors, and creates this unbalanced relationship of attachment between the captor and the captive

Front 8

6/5/07, Katina Krasnec, Stockholm Syndrome: Unequal Power Relationships, http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro04/web1/kkrasnec.html

Back 8

In the mid-19th century, many African-Americans felt betrayed by Lincoln when his government emancipated them. Some adamantly refused to leave their masters even when they were granted freedom.

Front 9

6/5/07, How Stuff Works, what exactly is Fascism,http://people.howstuffworks.com/fascism.htm

Back 9

Absolute power of the State: The Fascist state is a glorious, living entity that is more important than any individual. All individuals are part of the State, but the State is greater than the sum of its parts. All individuals must set aside their own needs and supplicate themselves to the needs of the State. There is no law or other power that can limit the authority of the State.

Survival of the fittest: A Fascist state is only as glorious and powerful as its ability to wage wars and win them. Peace is viewed as weakness, aggression as strength. Strength is the ultimate good and ensures the survival of the State.

Strict social order: Social classes are strictly maintained in order to avoid "mob rule" or any hint of chaos. Chaos is a threat to the State. The State's absolute power and greatness depends on the maintenance of a class system in which every individual has a specific place, and that place cannot be altered.

Authoritarian leadership: To maintain the power and greatness of the State requires a single, charismatic leader with absolute authority. This all-powerful, heroic leader maintains the unity and unquestioning submission required by the Fascist state. The authoritarian leader is often viewed as a symbol of the State.

Front 10

Stockholm syndrome." Rebecca Frey, PhD. The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine. Third Edition. Jacqueline L. Longe, Editor. 5 vols. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2006.

Back 10

Stockholm syndrome refers to a group of psychological symptoms that occur in some persons in a captive or hostage situation.

The syndrome was first named by Nils Bejerot (1921-1988), a medical professor who specialized in addiction research and served as a psychiatric consultant to the Swedish police during the standoff at the bank. Stockholm syndrome is also known as Survival Identification Syndrome.
Most experts, however, agree that Stockholm syndrome has three central characteristics:

The hostages have negative feelings about the police or other authorities.
The hostages have positive feelings toward their captor(s).
The captors develop positive feelings toward the hostages.

Front 11

"Stockholm syndrome." Rebecca Frey, PhD. The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine. Third Edition. Jacqueline L. Longe, Editor. 5 vols. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2006.

Back 11

FBI researchers then interviewed flight attendants who had been taken hostage during airplane hijackings, and concluded that three factors are necessary for the syndrome to develop:

The crisis situation lasts for several days or longer.
The hostage takers remain in contact with the hostages; that is, the hostages are not placed in a separate room.
The hostage takers show some kindness toward the hostages or at least refrain from harming them. Hostages abused by captors typically feel anger toward them and do not usually develop the syndrome.

In addition, people who often feel helpless in other stressful life situations or are willing to do anything in order to survive seem to be more susceptible to developing Stockholm syndrome if they are taken hostage.

People with Stockholm syndrome report the same symptoms as those diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): insomnia, nightmares, general irritability, difficulty concentrating, being easily startled, feelings of unreality or confusion, inability to enjoy previously pleasurable experiences, increased distrust of others, and flashbacks.

Front 12

James F. Campbell, and Paul Pederson, Hostage: Terror and Triumph (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992), 14, http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=22901002.

Back 12

Most authors conclude that the Stockholm Syndrome is an automatic, unconscious response and not a rational decision to side with those who are calling the shots. Both hostages and hostage-takers are affected by the phenomenon, and it serves to unite them against the "outside threat." The psychological mechanisms that contribute to the radical attitude shifts that occur with the Stockholm Syndrome have been explained in various ways. Anna Freud's ( 1974) concept of "identification with the aggressor" is frequently mentioned as a psychodynamic explanation. This defense is generated by the ego to protect itself against threatening authority figures. The identification is born out of fear, rather than love. Its purpose is to avoid punishment or annihilation.

Ochberg ( 1978) rejected the psychodynamic explanations and proposed that the combination of denial and gratitude were the operative factors in the development of the Stockholm Syndrome. He suggested that hostages somehow deny the danger engineered by the perpetrators. Having separated this from their awareness, the hostages are overwhelmingly grateful to the captors for giving them life. The focus is on the captors' kindnesses and not their acts of violence.