The Psychology of Victimhood: Obama, Cameron, Netanyahu, Clinton, Kissinger

By Robert J. Burrowes

12 November, 2014
Countercurrents.org

Several years ago, someone said to me: 'The victim wouldn't have it any
other way.' When I first heard this comment, it made no sense to me,
largely because I had never appreciated being a victim of violence when
I was a child. However, I have since spent considerable time grappling
with this comment by analysing what it means to be a victim. And I now
agree that, in far more cases than I would like it to be, the victim
wouldn't have it any other way. Here's why.

The psychology of a victim is complex and reflects the configuration of
violence to which they were subjected as a child. All children are
victims of chronic violence and while a rare individual survives this
violence to become a powerful agent of social change, most people
acquire a victim status that leaves them psychologically crippled for
life, filling some role, 'important' or otherwise, doing a lifetime of
soul-destroying work that is far removed from any pursuit that might be
described as 'Self-realizing'.

Many victims also become chronic perpetrators of violence which,
paradoxical though it may seem, doesn't alter their victim status. This
is obvious when we understand the psychology of people like US President
Barack Obama, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and former US Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton
and Henry Kissinger whose world outlooks are delusional. See, for
example, Clinton's recent review of the book 'World Order' –
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/hillary-clinton-reviews
-henry-kissingers-world-order/2014/09/04/b280c654-31ea-11e4-8f02-03c644b2d7d0_story.html
– written by arch-perpetrator of violence Henry Kissinger: see 'No One
Will Hold Kissinger Accountable'
http://truthstreammedia.com/no-one-will-hold-kissinger-accountable/

At birth, a child is genetically programmed to use their many
capacities, including their senses (such as sight, hearing and touch),
feelings (such as thirst, hunger, nausea and physical pain), memory,
'truth register', intuition, conscience, more feelings (such as fear,
happiness, emotional pain, joy, anger, satisfaction, sadness and sexual
arousal), and intellect to explore, learn about, understand and interact
with their natural and social world.

Evolution intended children to become powerfully Self-aware individuals
by doing this but this Self-awareness depends on one other factor: the
integrated functioning of these capacities in order to crystallize the
appropriately precise behavioral option in any given circumstance. If
any one of these capacities is not functioning as evolution intended,
the individual will suffer accordingly and this will result in
sub-optimal and, depending on what is not functioning, possibly violent
behavioral outcomes as well. For a full explanation of this, see 'Why
Violence?' http://tinyurl.com/whyviolence and 'Fearless Psychology and
Fearful Psychology: Principles and Practice'
http://anitamckone.wordpress.com/articles-2/fearless-and-fearful-psychology/

In essence, individuals who have a 'victim psychology' are people who
have been so terrorized during childhood that they end up feeling
(unconsciously) powerless to stand up to, confront or even identify the
individual(s) – their parent(s) and/or other significant adults from
their childhood – who perpetrated violence against them. As a result,
they will usually project that someone of whom they are not actually
afraid is victimizing them and they will powerlessly point their finger
at this (delusional) 'perpetrator' and demand, fearfully and
compulsively, that this person or group change their behaviour. This is
because victims give responsibility to others; that is, they want others
to take responsibility for not victimizing them. Why? For a victim, the
idea that they can change and learn to defend themselves powerfully is
beyond comprehension.

Victim behaviour is widespread and takes many forms. One classic example
of victim behaviour is the Jew who plays 'the Holocaust card' to
guilt-trip gullible others into participating in their delusion that
Palestinians are a threat to Israel. The unconscious terror of these
Jews is so extreme that, like the terrified Nazis who 'walled-in' the
Jewish ghetto in Warsaw in World War II, they now 'wall-in' the
Palestinians. Of course, in stark contrast to these Jews, powerful Jews
are unafraid of Palestinian identity and are quite able to acknowledge,
and even struggle for, Palestine's right to exist.

Another version of victim behaviour occurs when people delude themselves
about the merits of conflict outcomes by putting a positive cast on
negative results. The 'celebration' by some Palestinians following the
recent death toll and destruction during the Israeli 'Protective Edge'
slaughter in Gaza is based on a powerless notion of what it means to
resist. This is reminiscent of the powerless child celebrating a
vicarious act of defiance because it cannot respond powerfully and
strategically to the harsh reality that defines its circumstances. As
powerful Palestinians already know, nothing has been gained by firing
rockets into Israel and sympathy won for the suffering people of Gaza is
worth less than nothing. If things are to change politically, then
Palestinians need strategically focused acts of nonviolent resistance by
powerful individuals – see 'An Open Letter to My Palestinian Friends'
http://www.countercurrents.org/burrowes120814.htm – not sympathy from
their fellow victims around the world who will do nothing.

As mentioned above, an important variation on victim behavior is those
who use violence. For example, if we do not understand the victimhood of
people like Barack Obama, David Cameron, Benjamin Netanyahu, Hillary
Clinton and Henry Kissinger, then we cannot understand why they are so
violent. In essence: people such as Obama, Cameron, Netanyahu, Clinton
and Kissinger were terrorized by the extreme violence they suffered as
children and this has left them with a legacy of unconscious terror,
self-hatred and powerlessness as well as an undeveloped potential to
feel love, compassion, empathy and sympathy that has left them
psychologically crippled. Moreover, as one outcome of their
psychological damage, they project this terror and self-hatred as fear
of and hatred for 'legitimised victim groups'. Consequently, their only
response to any complex conflict is violence. For a thorough elaboration
of this point, see 'Understanding Obama and Other People Who Kill'
http://www.countercurrents.org/burrowes070513.htm

People like these five are simply devoid of the emotional capacity that
makes a powerful individual able to cooperate and persevere in seeking
mutually beneficial outcomes. And the emotional healing they would need
to do so that they could express their fear of and anger at their
parents and other significant adults from their childhoods is unlikely
to occur at this point in their lives although, for their own sakes, I
hope that they find the courage to so express it. In the meantime, those
of us who are not victims or who have recovered from our victimhood,
must nonviolently resist their violence.

If you wish to join the worldwide movement to end the violence committed
by those who are victims, then you are welcome to sign online 'The
People's Charter to Create a Nonviolent World'
http://thepeoplesnonviolencecharter.wordpress.com

To reiterate: All perpetrators of violence are victims of violence who
lack the courage to heal.

Robert J. Burrowes has a lifetime commitment to understanding
and ending human violence. He has done extensive research since 1966 in
an effort to understand why human beings are violent and has been a
nonviolent activist since 1981. He is the author of 'Why Violence?'
http://tinyurl.com/whyviolence His email address is [email protected]
and his website is at http://robertjburrowes.wordpress.com

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