Victim mentality
Victim mentality is an acquired (learned) personality trait in which a person tends to regard themselves as a victim of the negative actions of others, and to behave as if this were the case even in the lack of clear evidence of such circumstances. Victim mentality depends on habitual thought processes and attribution. In some cases, those with a victim mentality have in fact been the victim of wrongdoing by others or have otherwise suffered misfortune through no fault of their own; however, such misfortune does not necessarily imply that one will respond by developing a pervasive and universal victim mentality where one frequently or constantly believes oneself to be a victim.
The term is also used in reference to the tendency for blaming one's misfortunes on somebody else's misdeeds, which is also referred to as victimism.[1]
Victim mentality is primarily learned, for example, from family members and situations during childhood. Similarly, criminals often engage in victim thinking, believing themselves to be blameless and engaging in crime only as a reaction to external pressures and furthermore believing that police are unfairly singling them out for persecution.[2]
Foundations
In the most general sense, a victim is anyone who experiences injury, loss, or misfortune as a result of some event or series of events.[3] This negative experience, however, is insufficient for the emergence of a sense of victimhood. It has been suggested that individuals define themselves as a victim if they believe that:
- they were harmed;
- they were not responsible for the occurrence of the harmful act;
- they were under no obligation to prevent the harm;
- the harm constituted an injustice in that it violated their rights (if inflicted by a person) and/or in that they possessed qualities (e.g., strength or goodness of character) making them persons whom that harm did not befit
- they deserve sympathy.[4]
The desire of sympathy is crucial in that the mere experience of a harmful event is not enough for the emergence of the sense of being a victim. In order to have this sense there is the need to perceive the harm as undeserved, unjust and immoral, an act that could not be prevented by the victim. The need to obtain empathy can then emerge.[5]
Features
A victim mentality may manifest itself in a range of different behaviors or ways of thinking and talking:
- Blaming others for a situation that one has created oneself or significantly contributed to. Failing or being unwilling to take responsibility for one's own actions or actions to which one has contributed or for taking action to ameliorate the situation.
- Exhibiting heightened attention levels (hypervigilance) and paranoia when in close proximity to others.
- Ascribing non-existent negative intentions to other people (similar to paranoia).
- Believing that other people are generally or fundamentally luckier and happier ("Why me?").
- Gaining short-term pleasure from feeling sorry for oneself or eliciting pity from others. Eliciting sympathy by telling exaggerated stories about bad deeds of other people.
People with victim mentality may develop convincing and sophisticated arguments in support of such ideas, which they then use to convince themselves and others of their victim status.
People with victim mentality may also be generally:
- negative, with a general tendency to focus on bad rather than good aspects of a situation. A glass that is half full is considered half empty. A person with a high standard of living complains about not having enough money. A healthy person complains of minor health problems that others would ignore (cf. hypochondriasis).
- self-absorbed: unable or reluctant to consider a situation from the point of view of other people or to "walk a mile in their shoes"
- entitled: believing their victimization is license to behave selfishly and demand special privileges.[6]
- defensive: In conversation, reading a non-existent negative intention into a neutral question and reacting with a corresponding accusation, hindering the collective solution of problems and instead creating unnecessary conflict.
- categorizing: tending to divide people into "goodies" and "baddies" with no gray zone between them.
- unadventurous: generally unwilling to take even small and calculated risks; exaggerating the importance or likelihood of possible negative outcomes.
- exhibiting learned helplessness: underestimating one's ability or influence in a given situation; feeling powerless.
- stubborn: tending to reject suggestions or constructive criticism from others who listen and care; unable or reluctant to implement the suggestions of others for one's own benefit.
- self-abasing: Putting oneself down even further than others are supposedly doing.
A victim mentality may be reflected by linguistic markers or habits, such as pretending
- not to be able to do something ("I can't..."),
- not to have choices ("I must...") ("I have no choice..."), or
- not to know the answer to a question ("I don't know").
Victims of abuse and manipulation
Victims of abuse and manipulation often get trapped into a self-image of victimisation. The psychological profile of victimisation includes a pervasive sense of helplessness, passivity, loss of control, pessimism, negative thinking, strong feelings of guilt, shame, self-blame and depression. This way of thinking can lead to hopelessness and despair.[7]
Breaking out
Since victim mentality is primarily learned and not inborn, it is possible to change it. A change in attitude may be provoked by an extraordinary situation or crisis. Since rejecting suggestions is a general characteristic feature of victim mentality, a person with victim mentality will generally not respond positively to everyday attempts by another person to draw attention to the problem and its possible solution. For this reason, the condition may become chronic.
Politics
One may consider collective victimhood in political setting. If the leaders of a country, and the citizens who support them, collectively feel like victims of neighboring countries (e.g. following past border disputes), those leaders may be more likely to advocate violent conflict resolution or suppression of freedom of speech.
Political psychologists Bar-Tal and Chernyak-Hai write that collective victim mentality develops from a progression of self-realization, social recognition, and eventual attempts to maintain victimhood status.[8]
See also
References
- ↑ Alyson Manda Cole, The Cult of True Victimhood: From the War on Welfare to the War on Terror
- ↑ Stanton Samenow (2007), The Myth of the Out of Character Crime, Praeger ISBN 0275991946
- ↑ K. Aquino and K. Byron, ‘Dominating interpersonal behavior and perceived victimization in groups: Evidence for a curvilinear relationship’,Journal of Management, Vol. 28, No. 1, 2002, p. 71.
- ↑ C. J. Sykes, A nation of victims: The decay of the American character, St. Martin’s Press: New York, 1992
- ↑ http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayIssue?jid=IRC&volumeId=91&seriesId=0&issueId=874
- ↑ Emily M. Zitek, et al. Victim Entitlement to Behave Selfishly. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2010, Vol. 98, No. 2, 245–255 DOI: 10.1037/a0017168
- ↑ Braiker, Harriet B., Who's Pulling Your Strings ? How to Break The Cycle of Manipulation (2006)
- ↑ A sense of self-perceived collective victimhood in intractable conflicts; http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=6647920
Bibliography
- Caroline M Apovian (2010). The causes, prevalence, and treatment of obesity revisited in 2009: what have we learned so far? American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 91, 277S-279S.
- Christopher Peterson (2006). A Primer in Positive Psychology. Oxford University Press.
- Thomas J. Nevitt: The Victim Mentality. http://aaph.org/node/214