Is Mary Rowlandson Not Suffer From Stockholm Syndrome?

A traumatic event affects many people in various ways. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a globally recognized disorder that is common among persons who have experienced traumatic events, but is also known as a normal response by normal persons in abnormal situations. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder can be caused by a multitude of reasons, not just from traumatic events. People with various personality traits can be associated with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. People who suffer from poor health can also be associated with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. People who suffer various life occurrences such as rape, natural disasters,

Those who have studied PTSD have traced the cause back to a haunting event in an individual’s life. “A traumatic event is one where you see that you are in danger, your life is threatened, or where you see other people dying or being injured” (RCPSYCH.uk). PTSD creates a type of anxiety, and this type of anxiety prevents the patient

Traumatic events also produce profound and lasting changes in physiological arousal, emotion, cognition, and memory. Moreover, traumatic events may result in the severance of these normally integrated functions from one another. Traumatized individuals may also suffer from the memories of the tragic or horrifying experiences they have undergone. Frequently, as a result of these many symptoms, it becomes inevitable for the individual to develop certain complications associated with trauma-related disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder.

Post- traumatic stress disorder or PTSD is a disorder which is characterized by anxiety, dissociative, and other symptoms that last for more than one month and that occur as a result of exposure to extreme trauma. PTSD symptoms can develop in individuals faced with repeated mild or low magnitude stressors, such as employment problems, marital distress (Astin et al., 1995; Scott & Stradling, 1994), parenting separation or relationship problems. This disorder is more common in more traumatic events such as war or a bad car accident. What is a traumatic event exactly? Well, a traumatic event is when a person has experienced, witnessed or was confronted with event(s) that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others. The natural response to these

Why would women and men with the seemingly complete freedom submit to ongoing physical and psychological battering? How could they continue loving someone who will not treat them lovingly in return? Why would anyone let children be subjected to such a toxic environment? Part of the answer is that remaining in such a relationship is, in itself, an act of self-preservation. The most all-encompassing term for this complicated problem is Stockholm Syndrome. This simple phrase is an explanation for a decidedly complex problem. Drawing out the individual dynamics of such convoluted interpersonal relationships is beyond the scope of brief conversation or a single article, but this is a breakdown of the most important elements.

PTSD is defined as an "anxiety disorder that can occur after you have been through a traumatic event. A traumatic event is something horrible and scary that you see or happens to you” (United States). In these types of events one can feel that they are not in control of what is going on around them and may feel helpless or in great danger. The Department of Veterans Affairs has listed various life threatening events that can evolve into PTSD. These events include but are not limited to "Combat or Military exposure, child sexual or physical abuse, terrorist attacks, sexual or physical assault, serious accidents, such as a car wreck, natural disasters, such as a fire, tornado, hurricane, flood, or earthquake” (United States).

It can happen to anyone who has experienced or witnessed anything particularly disturbing. Though it is worth noting that those deployed to combat zone are at a particularly high risk with. A study done by Naval physician showed that approximately 11% of returning combatants were diagnosed with PTSD and a third being diagnosed with some form of stress or anxiety disorder (Strom 2012). Studies have also been conducted on other professions such as police officers, firefighters and journalists all of which have varying levels of employees who’ve claimed to have varying levels of PTSD throughout their career. Even when excluding an individual’s line of work, it is estimated that over half of adults will experience a severe stressor at some point in their life (Skogstad 2013). So clearly this problem extends to a vast audience of the population but what makes it trigger? Many don’t feel the mental toll of their experiences until after the fact. When they return home from overseas or leave their high stress job in pursuit of a simpler

Stockholm syndrome was considered a “complex psychological problem” and a “survival mechanism” where a victim bonds with their kidnapper or captor in order to stay alive. The syndrome became widely known in accordance with Hearst’s case, she claimed that the group convinced her that “her parents did not love her.”

She constantly tried to harm her brother and showed signs of dominance when she would abuse him and hurt his genitals. Since she was so engrossed on her body and discovering herself, she became stuck in this stage and as a result of not being able to move on she became aggressive, abusive, and wanting to harm others. Since she was so fixated on harming others, it led to this sadistic behavior and she had this conflict between the drives of the Id and the drives of the Ego. She had impulses to harm others as a result of her being harmed as a child. Being as though she wasn 't cared for and nurtured, she didn 't have loving relationships. She didn 't have the ability to trust others nor did she have the ability to be caring, towards anybody. Since she dealt with a lot of traumatic experiences, she’s been having the same recurring nightmares. She said she has this nightmare where “a man is falling on her and hurting her with a part of himself.” This was a familiar story that I 've once done but on Hysteria with a girl by the name of Bertha Pappenheim. She suffered from hysteria her symptoms are often the surface manifestations of deeply repressed conflicts. I later wrote about her in Studies in Hysteria” (1895). Bertha’s symptoms of this surface manifestation were due to her being sexually abused.

The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson is a personal account that was written by Mary Rowlandson in 1682. It is her account of what her experience in captivity was like. Her narrative about her captivity grew popular with American and English literature. Rowlandson lost everything when there was an attack orchestrated by Indians on her town Lancaster, Massachusetts in 1675; where she was later held as a prisoner. Rowlandson spent eleven weeks with the Wampanoag Indians. According to womenshistory.about.com, “Her book was written to retell the details of Mary Rowlandson 's captivity and rescue in the context of religious faith. The book was originally titled The Soveraignty & Goodness of God, Together with the Faithfulness of His Promises Displayed; Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, Commended by her to all that Desire to Know the Lord 's Doings to, and Dealings with Her. Especially to her Dear Children and Relations.”

disorder as a result of the abuse that took place.’ ("Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | Canadian Mental Health Association BC Division," 2013, para 3). This crisis he faced led to a failure of coping mechanisms including: abusing alcohol, being haunted by feelings of abandonment by their parents through Stockholm Syndrome (Fontaine, 2010, pg. 132), social anxiety, and his inferiority complex.

The life one treasures and takes for granted today can be so easily erased in the blink of an eye and gone tomorrow. Therefore, not only is it important to cherish how one lives for today and now, but it’s also important to how one can overcome the misfortunes and hardships they may suffer; tragedy can make a person or break a person. Mary Rowlandson’s experience during her eleven weeks of captivity as documented in “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” is a perfect answer to the above argument. The eleven weeks she experienced as a prisoner of her Indian captors proves to be a pivotal occasion in her life, which changes her feelings, lifestyle, and attitude as well towards her abductors. By the end of her horrifying experience, she rises more profoundly grounded in every way: mentally, physically, and spiritually with a new outlook on life, closer to God, and a newfound opinion of the Indians.

A particular traumatic setting, traumatic thrashing in addition to an inevitable association with an overwhelming oppressor, bringing about particular PTSD manifestations, proposes that PTSD research may profit by more prominent thought of settings: predator, conspecific and natural, combined with other logical attributes. This may prompt to more noteworthy understandability and consistency of treatment reactions. It appears differently in relation to a general malfunctioning malady based

In Mary Rowlandson’s. “A Narrative of the Captivity,” Rowlandson becomes more comfortable with her captors and their culture, by feeling comfortable with the people, though she is still in captivity and has limited freedoms. The captive becomes comfortable enough with her surroundings to ask one of the Native Americans to pay her for her services. She has lost some of the fear she once had. She goes into wigwams without fear of being hurt by the unknown tribe members.

Life threatening situations produce feelings of inefficacy, when in reality individuals often have some extent of control over the outcome. Psychological research concludes that human brains assume control during traumatizing times, often without the individual being conscious of it occurring. A common area when our brains go into an “autopilot” mode is during situations of exploitation, specifically in those who are exploited. Stockholm syndrome represents one such ‘autopilot’ process; a psychological phenomenon that causes those who are in stressful situations to develop a feeling of trust for who/what is causing them distress. Stockholm Syndrome presents a unique coping mechanism for trauma