jlin's picture

jlin

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Persecutor Victim

How do you detach from the persecutor/victim game(s).  This is when someone who is actually a bully manages to be sly enough to keep their bullying not necessarily hidden but definitely out of a spotlight.  When the intended victim blasts out or reacts, the bully then puts on the offended act and cries and carries on as if they have been bullied out of the blue over nothing and that their victim is an abusive so and so etc.

 

I have noted that this kind of game flourishes in a hierarchy where a group which feels entitled will be the bully and the victim who does not appreciate being told that they are disenfranchised will lash out. 

Publically, the bully may not be perceived as the bully, but rather as a victim.  and the victim is the percieved bully.

The only thing that I have been able to do to deal with this is just to be nasty and unapproachable, so that the bully will not generally bother approaching me to increase his/her bullying.  If am to be thought of as a bully, I may as well be thought of as unapproachable.  Eventually, the incongruity of the personality may just confuse people enough to back off.

I hear the "innocent" tag come up a lot.  When one complains of bullying, it is suppose to be the victim's stance to be perfectly innocent.  I.e. it was a woman's fault for being raped because she was a woman and was alone somewhere.

Any other methods you have discovered of dealing with this annoying social game?   I mean, even though it is just a school yard game, it is blown up in the world of offices and factories et al. as a very serious sort of game.  I have noted that it happens mostly in places where women work together with men and there are no women in top level management.

It happens least, if at all,  in an all male facility or an all female facility.

 

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naman's picture

naman

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Jlin, you asked "How do you detach from the persecutor/victim game(s)?"

 

Well, I guess that you could start by taking a detached view of the situation.

 

Otherwise, according the Karpman Drama Triangle, you might be reacting (lashing out) in such a way as to perpetuate the situation.

 

Where is the knight in shining armor who is supposed to rush in and rescue you? We need him in order to perpetuate the game.

 

But then again, Naman is not realy qualified to give advice on the situation and might only be setting himself up to play the game as such a game is played over and over again here at WonderCafe.

sighsnootles's picture

sighsnootles

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i'm pretty good at it, actually. 

 

best thing to do, imho, is to just detach from it, and comment on it only from a third party point of view...

 

something like 'did you know that when someone levels a personal attack, that usually means that they are completely out of ideas to back up their point of view, and simply can't admit that they are wrong?  its fascinating stuff.'

 

works pretty well... someone who is playing the 'persecutor/victim' game will normally just level a few more insults and then walk away.

Rowan's picture

Rowan

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Document everything.  If it's stuff online or in text messages, that kind of thing, keep copies.   If it's stuff the person is saying or doing write down what was done, when, where and who else was present.  Which is admittedly esier for an adult or older kid to do than a younger child.

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