History of the term ‘appeasement’: a response to Bailey et al. (2023)

Abstract

This letter to the editor aims to address claims made by Bailey et al. [2023. Appeasement: Replacing Stockholm syndrome as a definition of a survival strategy. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 14(1), 2161038] about the history of the concept of appeasement in relation to mammalian survival responses as well as the fawn response, by offering a brief overview and analysis of the literature.

Keywords

• appeasement
• coregulation
• fawn
• people-pleasing
• nervous system
• social engagement
• safety
• neuroception
• behaviour
• mammals