Victim mentality
Victim mentality or victim complex is a psychological concept referring to a mindset in which a person, or group of people, tends to recognize or consider themselves a victim of the actions of others. The term is also used in reference to the tendency for blaming one’s misfortunes on somebody else’s misdeeds, which is also referred to as victimism. It can develop as a defense mechanism to cope with negative life events.
Victim mentality can be developed from abuse and situations during childhood through adulthood. Similarly, criminals often engage in victim thinking, believing themselves to be moral and engaging in crime only as a reaction to an immoral world and furthermore feeling that authorities are unfairly singling them out for persecution. This mentality could also be branched from patterns of trauma which could make oneself feel like a victim.
Characteristics of the victimhood mindset have been observed at the group level, although not all individual-level traits apply.
