Dysfunctional family systems are ‘closed’ systems that resist integrating information that threatens the accepted family narrative. Family members who have scapegoated you will rarely accept responsibility for their actions, despite how egregious their mistreatment of you has been. Below are five reasons why you are unlikely to ever receive an apology from your family for their shameful treatment of you.
As the world watches in horror, Vladimir Putin provides us with an astounding example of Dr. Jennifer Freyd’s brilliant concept of ‘DARVO’, (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender), which I wrote about in a recent article. This is an excerpt from an article today in Reuters: Russia continued its assault on Ukraine Sunday morning on…
One of the more baffling and incomprehensible aspects of being scapegoated by family is being the target of mentally and emotionally abusive behaviors; reacting to the abuse appropriately (e.g., expressing hurt, confusion, anger, setting boundaries, etc), and then discovering that the person who committed the harmful or abusive acts views themselves as the victim – not the one they harmed.
