10 Weird Mental Malfunctions

8. Patty Hearst – A Victim of Stockholm Sydrome

After being taken from a comfortable life in high society, what could possibly cause a 19 year old to turn on everything she knew to join the ranks of the terrorists that had kidnapped her just two months previously? The answer for many was simple, Stockholm Syndrome.

Hearst was an heiress to a huge media corporation and was kidnapped by the SLA. In April 1975, Hearst helped the SLA rob a bank in San Francisco, one month after the SLA released a video announcing her alliance with them. They were captured in September 1975 and Hearst was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment despite psychologists arguing for Patty’s innocence on grounds of brainwashing. They claimed that she was suffering from Stockholm Syndrome and could not be held accountable for her crimes.

Sources: FBI Website, Biography.com, The BBC, CNN, Crime and Investigation