Victim Complex

Victim or Martyr complex is when someone has desires or feelings of being a victim by seeking out suffering of some sort that feeds a psychological need or desire to avoid responsibility. This also applies to the victim mentality; however, this is personality trait.

The reason why I mention this is that this topic fits in well with my thought processes because most of the things Sebastian Junger has said that have caught my interest have mostly been about why humans behave they way they do in first world societies. Things about not appreciating things that make up life, the feeling of not being needed in a safe and affluent society is a contributing factor to most depressions and suicides in modern society today and unity on an intimate tribal level between us as a whole has been is lost. To me these reasons are in some way connected to the victim complex because the desire of being a victim in any form is also attention seeking to some extent. You are attention seek for many reasons, one of which is when you feel lonely.

When you live in a comfortable and safe environment where most essential needs are provided and more, you start noticing problems elsewhere. This then sparks off a endless journey of seeking for the ideal life and that causes stress and many problems and you start finding problems everywhere which, in some way, is seeking for suffering. Hence why I think this is linked to the victim complex.

There were some great explanations on the victim complex in a Nursing Management article I read. In the article named ‘Cutbacks and Shrinkages: A Means to Eliminate the “Victim Mentality”’, Richard Bolles who is the author of Three Boxes of Life – and How to Get Out of Them says something similar to the affect that sinking into a victim complex ‘discharges you from any responsibility’. This only really occurs when your up against powerful forces of nature that you have no control over, however, there are some you take this a step to far and put these forces of nature into a category of smaller insignificant problems.

Bolles says, “Being a victim means there are some areas to my life where I am battling powerful forces, but I will still do battle with them. Whereas, having a Victim Mentality means giving up”. To me this implies that by assuming the role of the victim off the bat, the thing that you are trying to do battle with and then avoiding is a powerful force of nature. Often the case is that its not. They are forces that can be battled with successfully and without severe repercussions.

This is what most of us see a lot of the time in our daily lives. People assuming the worst when up against things that are putting them off balance or not giving them an ideal solution. By taking this way of thinking and assuming that petty things in life are huge uncontrollable forces of nature, I can imagine them being blown out of proportion which will parallel my exaggerated cartoon faces.

My characters will be among those individuals who assume the role of the victim because they want the responsibility off their hands and an ideal life. In doing so they invest lots of energy in making mountains out of molehills and overreacting to the little things.

Article: Nursing Management; Cutbacks and Shrinkages: a means to eliminate the victim Mentaility

Author: Marie Manthey

Publisher: S-N Publications, inc.

Chicago

Volume 17, Part 4

Year:1986