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

Robert J. Burrowes

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’ written by arch-perpetrator of violence Henry Kissinger: see ‘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.

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