I think Dana might have Stockholm syndrome.
(I know Stockholm syndrome is not technically a mental illness or psychological disability but I'll get to that, just needed that clickbait title babbbeeeeee)
Stockholm syndrome is characterized by a few different ideas but the basic concept is that of a hostage developing positive feelings towards a captor. Although Rufus does not fit the traditional role of a captor, nor Dana that of a hostage, I believe these two tags are still very applicable for the relationship between the two characters. Rufus has the ability to call Dana back into the past where she becomes trapped in a place she does not want to be for up to several months. Dana is not being kept for a ransom, instead she is in a worse position as a slave. The main deviation from the captor/hostage labels lie with Rufus' intention (or rather lack thereof). In an actual hostage situation it is impossible for the captor to accidentally take someone hostage. The captor traditionally has a certain amount of control. Instead Dana gets called back without Rufus actually meaning to. Dana cannot be ransomed off to her family since Kevin is in the future for most of the book, however she is a hostage against herself. Anything that goes wrong directly hurts her and her getting sold would only affect her.
Dana (for the most part) likes Rufus. She believes they have something special going between them despite there never being any verbal confirmation. She saves his life time and time again and always gives him the benefit of the doubt. She has a very complex relationship with Rufus because they are however distantly related (great-great-great-great-great whatever at this point the word great has lost all meaning grandfather), however if she truly despised him then her attitude would have been extremely different, only doing the bare minimum to ensure his survival and get him and Alice together. Instead she becomes emotionally involved, even sympathizing with him despite the harm that has come onto her which is all indirectly his fault. Even in the end when Rufus is attempting to rape Dana, she thinks about just letting it happen, thinking it might not be that bad. The amount of effort it takes to convince herself to actually fight back shows that there is something going on in Dana's head. This is more than just a complex relationship.
Why is this not quite Stockholm syndrome?
They are related. (I think the relationship is distant enough that this doesn't matter all that much, plus Rufus doesn't know. I'm not any sort of expert though so idk ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )
However, at its core, Stockholm syndrome is about the the mindset an abused person feels towards a captor or abuser. Dana demonstrates two of the main three parts of Stockholm syndrome: positive feelings towards a captor/abuser and a sympathy for their beliefs (the third is a negative feeling towards police or other authority figures but it doesn't quite seem applicable in this situation). Stockholm syndrome is a coping mechanism, it helps preserve the safety of an affected individual. I think Dana shares some traits with traits of Stockholm syndrome but I cannot say with 100% certainty that she has Stockholm syndrome due to the complexity of their relationship. What do you think?
I think all clickbait should have some tiny disappointing kernel of justification so here it is: Dana 100%, irrefutably has PTSD at the end of the novel. This is categorized as a psychological disorder meaning technically my title is accurate despite not being applicable to the majority of this post's content.
I wouldn't say that Dana "likes" Rufus, but more that she sees that he has potential. I think that Dana is an extremely optimistic character, and sees Rufus as a chance for her to positively affect history. And because of her optimism, she often empathizes with him even when he is clearly acting in opposition to her.
ReplyDeleteI kind of disagree, I think that Dana does like Rufus. She tries to assign positive motivations to so many of his actions that at times it's like everyone around her is warning her away from him and from trusting him, but she is still drawn back. She even acknowledges herself that she forgives him very quickly, and that she shouldn't. I think that the stockholm syndrome-esque traits that Demetrius outlines come out in her getting very personally emotionally attached, through appreciating his gifts and trying to help him with other things in his life, and also just her inability to stay angry at him.
DeleteThis is an interesting take and I see where you're coming from, though I don't think I would go so far. I think her attitudes of "liking" Rufus (and I wouldn't use that word really), come from the short length of time in which she's seen him grow up from a more or less innocent child to a morally indefensible adult, her desire for a happy story regarding her ancestry, and an ability to understand his surroundings and cultural climate were very different from hers (though she still does everything in her power to shift his world view). I'm not sure I would call it Stockholm Syndrome, and I don't think she's behaving in a way that necessarily suggests mental illness, though I do think your point about PTSD is important. I think Dana is put in absurd and impossible scenarios time and time again and she does everything she can to survive.
ReplyDeleteI would characterize her initial liking of Rufus as just a familial tie. It's a complicated situation, she saw Rufus as a child not more than a year and a half ago and now she is seeing him as an abusive slave owner. It is a quick turnaround that you cannot really expect someone to adjust to quickly. I also think that she is sympathetic towards Rufus because she is partially responsible for having influenced his outlook on the world. I don't think you can narrowly define these ideas as much as you did. It is a very complex situation but I do not think Dana suffers from Stockholm syndrome.
ReplyDeleteI think stockholm syndrome especially makes sense here because for her it was months on end of being in that world, with just short days or weeks in between the months spent there. It really was like her entire life just ripped apart and suddenly she only existed in this weird reality of time travel, which is weird to think about because for Rufus her interjections into his life were few and far between in the grand scale of things.
ReplyDeleteOne important distinction between Dana's situation and the classic Stockholm situation has to do with the unique structure that time travel creates for this narrative: while the captive in the Stockholm model comes to alter their initial hatred and horror at their captors, being "brainwashed" into accepting and even embracing their captivity and sometimes assuming the ideology and values of the captors (Patty Hearst being the most famous example). In Dana's case, her initial views of Rufus are generally quite positive, because he's so young--he's able to make her his "captive" in this weird magical way, even when she's the age to be HIS parent/guardian, and she largely functions that way initially. There's an odd dynamic where she *grows into* Stockholm syndrome over the course of the novel, where her inclination to resist viewing her captor this way starts to erode.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great analysis, and I would agree with you. She has to cope with living with the Weylins, since she's supposed to protect Rufus and keep him alive. In order to do get along with him, she has to sympathize with him, because she knows that if they argue too much, Rufus could do bad things. She had to spend months with him, and it seems that the longer she's around, the more she has to tolerate so that they don't have a conflict.
ReplyDeleteI tried to look up stockholm syndrome in the dsm but it's not listed there. I agree that it's messed up how she has positive feelings towards Rufus but I think she is right to stick with him, he probably gives her the best chance of living. It's kinda cool to see how human Dana is since she literally knew Rufus as an innocent little kid mere months before his full adulthood so she would like to believe she can change him back to that, I think there's a little more of a basis for her beliefs than in a stockholm syndrome situation.
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