From Systemic Gaslighting to Scientific Proof: Asserting the Truth of
Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA) internationally.
By Rebecca C. Mandeville, LMFT, CCTP
This post is public. Your comments are therefore also public.
I have some heartening news to share from the front lines of FSA Education:
My 2024 quantitative study on the insidious phenomenon I named ‘Family Scapegoating Abuse’ (FSA), co-authored with Dr. Kartheek R. Balapala and his team of research scholars, has just been accepted for publication in the Malaysian Journal of Medical Research. This follows this same study’s previous publication in the European Journal of Public Health Studies. Our second 2025 quantitative FSA study was also accepted for publication in both of these respected peer-reviewed journals.
Now, I realize that academic journals can feel a bit “distant” when you are in the thick of a family crisis or a “Systemic Melt.” You might be wondering why I’m so focused on getting this work into the hands of global medical and public health researchers.
Here is the truth: If you’re a scapegoat survivor, this research is your Shield.
For too long, those of us who have lived through the Scapegoat Narrative have been told that our pain is “subjective,” that it’s just a “family misunderstanding,” or—worse—that we are “imagining things” or we’re being “overly sensitive.”
By publishing in international medical and public health journals, we are effectively moving the evidence out of the living room ‘debate’ and into the ‘forensic laboratory’ of facts. The painful reality of Family Scapegoating Abuse can no longer be dismissed as a ‘subjective’ family matter when the FSA survivor reality is supported by peer-reviewed research.
How Our FSA Research Serves as a Survivor “Shield”
When this work is peer-reviewed and published globally, it means:
- Your Trauma is a Measured Fact: We are proving that FSA is not just an unsupported “concept,” “idea,” or “theory” that I came up with —it is a specific, identifiable pattern of systemic harm that results in measurable Identity Destruction as well as Complex Trauma and Autonomic Nervous System (AND) dysfunction.
- The Gaslighting Stops Here: When a “Bad Actor” tries to tell you that you are “imagining things,” you now have the weight of international science backing your lived experiences of systemic harm.
- A Global Lexicon: We are forcing the medical and public health communities to recognize FSA as a legitimate root cause of long-term trauma—Complex Trauma, specifically, as established in my early qualitative FSA studies. We are taking the “story” away from the abusers and giving the “data” to the survivors.
Having our FSA studies accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journals also ensures that the recovery tools and healing pathways I am currently building for you are not just “good ideas”—they are evidence-based forensic protocols grounded in global research, including the Kintsugi Method for FSA Recovery™ I am currently developing for survivors.
Why the Science is Your Sanctuary (Q & A)
I know that “Peer-Reviewed Journals” can feel like a foreign language. Here are the questions I know many of you are thinking, but might feel too intimidated to ask.
1. Why does FSA research actually matter to my recovery?
Answer: Because without research, your experience is just a “story”—and stories can be dismissed, debated, or denied by your family, health professionals, social circles you share with family, etc. Research moves your experience out of the “he-said-she-said” and into the realm of Forensic Fact. When we have peer-reviewed data, we have proof that what happened to you is a specific, measurable form of systemic abuse with identifiable consequences. Research is the Garrison (defended, fortified space) that protects your sanity from gaslighting.
2. Why is it a concern when other “experts” ignore this research or rebrand it without citing the source?
Answer: This isn’t about my ego; it’s about Structural Integrity. When scapegoat or narcissistic abuse “experts” take parts of my FSA research, strip away the forensic terminology, and re-brand the concepts and findings as their own with attendant recovery “tips or tricks,” they are weakening the ‘Shield’ effect of my FSA research.
Erasing the source is a form of calculated “Scapegoating” that keeps the survivor community fragmented and the abuse minimized. If they erase the source, they erase the Clinical Authority behind the work. If you try to take a “re-branded” social media post to a therapist or a judge, it carries no weight. If you take a published, peer-reviewed Medical Study, you are carrying a structural weapon of truth.
3. Does this research change how I deal with my family right now?
Answer: Yes. It changes your Internal Posture. Once you realize that your “Family Story” is actually a documented systemic failure, you stop looking for the perpetrator(s) or “Bad Actor(s)” to admit they are wrong. You stop waiting for their permission to be healed. You start treating your recovery as a Restoration Project based on proven protocols rather than a desperate attempt to be “understood” by people who are committed to misunderstanding you.
4. Why publish in journals in places like Europe or Malaysia?
Answer: FSA is a global issue, but the Western medical system is often slow to change its “codes.” By publishing internationally, we are surrounding the problem. As mentioned earlier in this post, we are building a Global Lexicon. When researchers in different parts of the world all point to the same truth, the “old guard” can no longer ignore the reality of the Scapegoated Self.
We are no longer just “surviving” in the shadows; we are building a globally recognized Garrison of truth. Every time a journal accepts and publishes our Family Scapegoating Abuse-focused studies, another brick is laid in the foundation of international recognition of scapegoating’s traumatizing impact and effects on child victims and adult survivors.
Thank you for being the “Living Data” that is helping to change the world’s understanding of this poorly understood and under-researched form of abuse.
Slowly, we are being heard.
How You Can Help
If you are on forums or recovery groups that focus on scapegoating, share this page from my website that summarizes my Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA) research to date.
You can also support my FSA Mission by joining my Substack and sharing my posts on social media.
Visit my website, Scapegoat Recovery, to learn more about FSA: https://www.scapegoatrecovery.com.
Visit My FSA Research Summary Page
This FSA research-related post is part of the permanent archive of Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA) Education at https://www.scapegoatrecovery.com.