The origins of Stockholm Syndrome and its initial framing may be debated, its continued use in psychology suggests that it provides a useful framework for understanding certain psychological responses
It also might be that "its continued use in psychology suggests" that false information taught to university students can result in years of incorrect orthodoxy before the error is corrected.
Homosexuality used to be a psychological disorder, at times treated by castration.
Hysteria used to be a diagnosable illness in women for which they'd spend years in an institution.
The psychological establishment has a very dark and nasty history, replete with "theories" that they all believed were justified - a practice that continues to this day.
It's not really a matter of debate. We know the origins. We know it is junk science. We know this about multiple sciences and scientific theories, that's how science works: someone gets an idea, they theorize about it, test their theories, and our shared understanding grows.
This is not that. This is an ass-pulled theory that's been debunked at it's point of origin. This doesn't deserve rebuttal, it deserves mockery and derision.
Also, the FBI seems to believe it exists, based on 1200 hostage incident reports[0]:
> According to the FBI’s Hostage/Barricade System (HOBAS), a national database that contains data from over 1,200 reported federal, state, and local hostage/barricade incidents, 92 percent of the victims of such incidents reportedly showed no aspect of the Stockholm Syndrome. When victims who only showed negative feelings toward law enforcement (usually due to frustration with the pace of negotiations) are included, the percentage rises to 95 percent. In short, this database provides empirical support that the Stockholm Syndrome remains a rare occurrence.
[0] https://web.archive.org/web/20040627010420/http://www.au.af....
Neither of these are true of Stockholm Syndrome. It's no better than the many "theories" of hair tonic merchants.
You're also grossly abusing the concept of "statistics" in your statement "this database provides empirical support that the Stockholm Syndrome remains a rare occurrence."
Since this has not happened, Stockhom Syndrome is not considered testable (because no such scientific tests have been defined). If one were to successfully design a testing protocol for it, it would then be considered testable. For now, it's not even a theory.
This is a well-established process that Stockholm Syndrome has yet to undergo (much like the polygraph - also a favorite of the FBI). The fact that it's "regarded as real" is immaterial - in fact, that's PRECISELY WHY the scientific process exists. It used to be "regarded as real" that homosexuality is a mental disorder - by both the BOI/FBI and the psychiatric community. Everyone just somehow "knew" it to be true...
> Not to mention the many high profile cases where victims clearly demonstrated symptoms.
Such as?
If this is indeed a real thing, then there should be so many recorded instances by now that there's enough data to perform an actual study and publish a paper demonstrating the effcet (gaining the author some serious recognition in the scientific community).