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.
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