The most common triggers for scapegoating are stress, anxiety, and the presence of a crisis. In these situations, individuals or groups unfairly blame others to deflect responsibility, manage overwhelming emotions, and create an illusion of control.
Historical and Psychological Roots of Scapegoating
Over time, the concept evolved, with certain individuals or groups taking on the symbolic role of “scapegoats” in times of crisis. The psychological drive behind this behavior is largely rooted in fear, insecurity, and the need to create order from chaos.
A scapegoat may be an adult, child, sibling, employee, or peer, or it may be an ethnic, political or religious group, or a country. A whipping boy, identified patient, or fall guy are forms of scapegoat.
In this Article, I examine four types of scapegoating which I designate (1) frame-ups, (2) axe-grindings, (3) patsies, and (4) reckonings.
A person becomes an easy scapegoat when personal visibility, low power, social isolation, perceived norm deviance, and ambiguous responsibility combine with group stress, leadership incentives, and weak institutional protections.
7 signs you might be the family scapegoat
The number one trait of a narcissist is often considered a grandiose sense of self-importance (grandiosity) combined with a profound lack of empathy, where they see others as tools for their own gain and have an inflated, often unrealistic, view of their own superiority, needing constant admiration without acknowledging others' feelings or needs, as highlighted by HelpGuide.org and The Hart Centre. This core creates other behaviors like entitlement, manipulation, and arrogance, making them believe they deserve special treatment.
The scapegoat is the child who gets the wrath of the emotionally immature parent. They're usually on the receiving end of invalidation where they're told it's not a big deal or stop being dramatic of gaslighting or they're made to question their perspectives or their reality.
Scapegoats are often chosen based on arbitrary factors like birth order or appearance, and this is never the child's fault. Prioritizing your mental health is important if you are trying to heal from being a family scapegoat.
What follows are five steps someone can take to free themselves from the impacts of this family story.
The youngest seems to usually be the default scapegoat.
Common Signs of a Toxic Family
How to stop being the scapegoat
The term scapegoat, however, has evolved to refer to individuals or peoples who are symbolically or concretely made to bear responsibility for the faults or problems of others. For individuals, scapegoating is a psychological defense mechanism of denial through projecting responsibility and blame on others.
Breaking free from the Scapegoat identity requires allowing others to bear their own burdens. Learning to provide compassion without sacrificing yourself is a skill that can be developed, and it begins by allowing others to face the consequences of their own actions.
Scapegoat theory refers to the tendency to blame someone else for one's own problems, a process that often results in feelings of prejudice toward the person or group that one is blaming. Scapegoating serves as an opportunity to explain failure or misdeeds, while maintaining one's positive self-image.
5 Characteristics of a Dysfunctional Family
If you are constantly being blamed for problems in your family, this may be a sign that you are the scapegoat. Obviously, there is context around all issues but you may find that you are being blamed for issues that you had nothing to do with.
The scapegoat was a goat that was designated (Hebrew: לַעֲזָאזֵֽל) la-'aza'zeyl; "for absolute removal" (for symbolic removal of the people's sins with the literal removal of the goat), and outcast in the desert as part of the Yom Kippur Temple service at the Temple in Jerusalem.
Focusing on individual ACEs, in males, all maltreatment experiences were associated with narcissistic rivalry, with the exception of physical neglect, while in women only emotional maltreatment and emotional neglect were significant.
An overt, grandiose narcissist speaks quickly and constantly. Having been softened by the narcissist's bright energy and intense focus on you, you feel obliged to listen. Before you know it, you find yourself dragged along on a meandering conversation, unsure exactly how you ended up on this endless river of words.
As a Harvard-trained psychologist, I've found that there are seven phrases you'll hear from highly narcissistic people:
Based on some overlapping symptoms, borderline personality disorder (BPD) and narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) are two mental health disorders that are often mistaken for one another.