Helsinki syndrome

English

Alternative forms

• Helsinki Syndrome

Etymology

Probably due to the 1988 film Die Hard in which an ignorant TV expert calls Stockholm syndrome "Helsinki syndrome":

• 1988, Jeb Stuart (screenplay), Die Hard:

  Gail Wallens (a news anchor, live on air): ...author of "Hostage/Terrorist, Terrorist/Hostage, a Study in Duality." Dr. Hasseldorf, what can we expect in the next few hours?
  Dr. Hasseldorf: Well, Gail, by this time the hostages should be going through the early stages of the Helsinki Syndrome.
  Harvey Johnson (Gail's co-anchor): As in Helsinki, Sweden?
  [a crew member facepalms]

Noun

Helsinki syndrome (uncountable)

1. (proscribed) Stockholm syndrome.
   • 1991, William Carney, Hide and Seek, page 203:

     "It's called Helsinki Syndrome.” Dr. Pantu said to the Doctor over the telephone. “The kidnapped, or hostages, begin to identify with their captors."

   • 1993, John Sword, Window on Mankind: Evolution and Human Behaviour, page 78:

     In the same field as brain washing but acting with almost immediate effect is a response now called the “Helsinki Syndrome" after an event that occurred in that city. Bank robbers took captive some bank staff after a robbery went wrong.

   • 1995, Steven Naifeh, Gregory White Smith, A Stranger in the Family, page 289:

     Danny claimed he fell in love with Jeannie, but what seemed to Storms more likely was that she had developed some kind of Patti Hearst-like, Helsinki-syndrome, teenage crush on him.

   • 1997, Don Pendleton, Night of the Jaguar, page 329:

     It's the Helsinki syndrome, Striker. We've encountered it before in the SAS. When hostages are totally dependent on their captors and do not know whether they'll live or die, they begin to identify with the terrorists.

   • 1999, Lee Butcher, Sex, Money and Murder in Daytona Beach, page 342:

     Niles wanted to know if Dr. Davis was familiar with the Helsinki Syndrome, where hostages were brainwashed into thinking of their captives as friends.

   • 2001, Quinton Skinner, Do I Look Like a Daddy to You?:, page 90:

     This is a variation of the Helsinki Syndrome, in which hostages come to sympathize with their captors.

   • 2001, Lynda Simmons, Just the Way You Aren't, page 117:

     And had she even once mentioned that in reality Beauty was a hostage suffering from Helsinki syndrome?

   • 2007, Vanda Juknaitė, Bernard Ivan Tamas, Laima Srouginis, My Voice Betrays Me, page xix:

     I've read about the Helsinki syndrome, when the victim becomes attached to his or her tormentor.