A majority of Taiwanese continue to suffer psychologically by sympathizing with their former captors, said a Taiwanese-American psychiatrist, who urged them to shake off their condition by recognizing their own worth and value.
Lin Ih-foo (林毅夫), from Hsinchu County, is a psychiatrist in the US and the author of Psychological Analysis of the Taiwanese’s Self-abusing Behavior (台灣人的受虐性格的心理分析), a book that looks at the complex psychological relationship between Taiwanese and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Lin argues that many Taiwanese suffer from Stockholm syndrome, a term coined in 1973 after a bank robbery in the capital of Sweden. Following their release after being held hostage for more than five days, tellers at the bank displayed affection for the hostage-takers.
Another well-known case is that of Patricia Hearst, the granddaughter of media tycoon Randolph Hearst, who was abducted by the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974. Two months after her kidnapping, the 19-year-old became active in the militant group and participated in a robbery.
The argument that she was suffering from Stockholm syndrome was rejected by the courts and she was convicted.
In an interview with the Taipei Times earlier this month, Lin said the syndrome is the result of psychological change in an individual held captive. The victim develops an emotional attachment to his or her captors and becomes hostile toward the rescuer.
The captor is seen as key to the hostage’s survival.
“The victim believes that the rescuers are jeopardizing his or her chances of survival and ends up adopting the captor’s beliefs and value system,” he said, adding that victims will try to protect their captors by showing concern for their wellbeing.
The three elements that contribute to Stockholm syndrome, he says, are a power imbalance that leads the victim to live in a perpetual state of fear.
“The second factor is the isolation of the victim, which leads to total dependence on the captor. The only information the captive receives comes from the captor,” he said.
“Finally, every so often the captor grants favors and the boundary between the captor and the captive becomes blurred,” he said.
Drawing a parallel between the KMT and Taiwanese, Lin said the circumstances and the behavior of Taiwanese are very similar to those of the victims of the bank robbery in Sweden.
“First, there was the 228 Massacre, where people lived in fear for a long time after it happened. Subsequently, there was the Martial Law era. People lived in fear for 40 years and during that time the livelihood of Taiwanese was dependent on the KMT regime,” he said.
Under the KMT and with help from abroad, standards of living improved and the KMT periodically provided “favors” to different interest groups such as the military, government workers, teachers, fishermen, laborers and farmers.
Members of these groups, he said, began to develop an affinity for the KMT. Even after martial law was lifted in 1987, “the machinery of the rulers” remained in place through education, the legal system and the media, which continued to propagate the KMT belief system.
Rather than point fingers at the KMT, Taiwanese sided with the regime while condemning those who opposed the “captor,” Lin said.
“When someone was arrested for speaking out against the government, people tended to say that the person deserved it, that he or she had a big mouth. In their view, the victim was the bad guy and whatever happened to the victim had nothing to do with them,” Lin said.
Many Taiwanese would also jump to the KMT’s defense — even when the party committed things that were against the interests of the public.
During martial law, many people justified government-imposed restrictions that said Taiwanese had nothing to fear as long as they obeyed the rules, Lin said.
Su An-sheng (蘇安生) is a good example, Lin said. Last year, Su, a staunch pan-blue supporter, kicked former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in the rear as the former president was on his way to court. Su also physically assaulted former Taiwanese representative to Japan Koh Se-kai (許世楷).
In July, Su was beaten by two men in Taipei. His arm was broken.
“Rather than condemn Su’s violent acts, many people only denounced the violence that was done to him,” Lin said.
The KMT belief system is gaining strength, he said, principally through the use of language.
“Expressions such as ‘cross-strait,’ ‘mainland tourists’ and ‘mainland investment’ send the message that the relationship between Taiwan and China is one between a district and a country rather than two separate countries,” he said.
When the relationship between Canada and the US is described, no one says “this side of the Niagara Falls and that side of the Niagara Falls,” he said.
“People simply say Canada and the US,” Lin said.
From a clinical angle, contemporary Taiwan has a mixed prognosis — also common in sufferers of Stockholm syndrome — given the re-election of the KMT last year, he said.
“While many people’s views haven’t changed, in the past 10 or 12 years we have seen a strengthening of Taiwan-centric consciousness,” he said.
“More attention is paid to Taiwanese history and culture, and a certain sense of pride has developed,” Lin said.
In a normal doctor-patient relationship, the doctor’s job is to show the patient that he or she can lead a good life without help from the captors, he said.
When it comes to Taiwan, however, the “doctor” is the independence movement — the musicians, teachers, authors and politicians who tell the people that they can live a happy, safe and prosperous life as Taiwanese without being absorbed by China.
Despite some visible progress, Lin said the end result remained in doubt.
“It will fall on Taiwanese to determine the outcome,” he said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as