Abuse and subsequent submission and appeasement by the victim have been observed among chimpanzees, leading to the theory that the Stockholm syndrome may have its roots in evolutionary needs.Life in the "environment of evolutionary adaptedness" (EEA) is thought by researchers such as Israeli military historian Azar Gat to be similar to that of the few remaining hunter-gatherer societies. Gat asserts that war and abductions were typical of human pre-history. Being captured by neighbouring tribes was a relatively common event for women. In some of those tribes (the Yanomamo, for instance), practically everyone in the tribe is descended from a captive within the last three generations. As high as one in ten of females were abducted and incorporated into the tribe that captured them. Being captured and having their children killed may have been common; women who resisted capture risked being killed. When selection is intense and persistent, adaptive traits (such as capture-bonding) become universal to the population or species. Loving to survive
First published in 1994, author Dee Graham uses the Stockholm syndrome label to describe group or collective responses to trauma, rather than individual reactions. Graham focuses specifically on the impact of Stockholm syndrome on battered and abused women as a community. She claimed that in both the psychological and societal senses, these women are defined by their sense of fear surrounding the threat of male violence.
This view of reality could not continue, in Fairbairns theory, if the four captives were able to access the fear, terror and, indeed, rage assumed to be held in their Antilibidinal Ego-Rejecting Object structures. The depth of their fear and rage at being abused, would clash with their split-off, opposite view of the hidden “goodness” in the captors. As mentioned, the splitting defense allows the user to see others as if they are two different people. This offers a second possible reason that the terrifying memories of events remain dissociated (in the Antilibidinal Ego-Rejecting Object structures in the unconscious). If one or more of the captives were able to experience these feelings directly (including the impotent rage), during the six days when they were held captive in the presence of the captors, they might have been killed for being disruptive and threatening. This ultimate terror, of being killed for experiencing the fear/rage and humiliation that is assumed to have been dissociated into the unconscious, may be the motivation that promotes the libidinal egos view of the two captors to continue, and simultaneously avoiding the enormously toxic memories of their six days in captivity. Thus, Fairbairns model offers a sound psychological explanation for attachment to abusers (Celani, 1995). Possible evolutionary explanations
Evolutionarily speaking, research evidence exists to support the genuine scientific nature of Stockholm syndrome. Responses similar to those in human captives have been detected in some reptiles and mammals, primates in particular.