Learn English – Term for a syndrome where someone falls in love with their rescuer

single-word-requests

Think of a scenario similar to your classic fairytale, where a damsel in distress is rescued by the prince, and she falls in love with him. Is there a name for this as a syndrome or similar? Nightingale syndrome seems to come close, but that seems to be specifically for when someone falls in love with their caregiver. I'm not sure if it applies to a rescuee falling in love with their rescuer.

Some clarification: The term I'm after wouldn't necessarily imply the rescuer and rescuee form a relationship. Merely that as a result of being rescued the rescuee forms an attachment to their rescuer. It might be unrequited. And it wouldn't necessarily involve any sort of inappropriate behaviour, such as the rescuee stalking the rescuer, or the rescuer taking advantage of this effect to form an inappropriate relationship. If anything, the rescuer may recognise the rescuee's feelings are just due to this effect, rather than being genuine, and therefore use this as a reason to rebuff any advances from the rescuee, until such time as the effect has faded. Similar concepts include a patient developing a crush on their nurse (Nightingale Syndrome/Effect), or a student developing a crush on their teacher (transference effect?).

Also, it doesn't need to include the word 'syndrome' or similar. It would also be acceptable if it is a more general term that applies to a number of situations, not just the rescuer-rescuee scenario I've described above.

If such a term doesn't exist, it could perhaps be called something like 'damsel in distress effect', although ideally without implying the rescuee is helpless or female.

Best Answer

What about referring to “Prince Charming” i.e. the archetypal handsome rescuer who saves the damsel in distress, and whom she always falls in love with, and then lives with happily ever after.

Prince Charming is a fairy tale character who comes to the rescue of a damsel in distress and must engage in a quest to liberate her from an evil spell. This classification suits most heroes of a number of traditional folk tales, including "Snow White", "Sleeping Beauty", and "Cinderella", even if in the original story they were given another name, or no name at all. Often handsome and romantic, these characters are essentially interchangeable, serving as a foil to the heroine; in many variants, they can be viewed as a metaphor for a reward the heroine achieves for the decisions she makes. [...] — https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Charming

However, the term Prince Charming Syndrome, is already used for someone waiting (in vain) for the perfect relationship :

Dr. Robi: The person who has the “Prince Charming Syndrome” is also someone who is very inflexible when it comes to love and relationships. They have such a romanticized version of what love should look like [...] - https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_6498436

but perhaps you could say a “Prince Charming” relationship or “Prince Charming & damsel-in-distress” relationship or suchlike ?

Related Topic