Psychology Today | 28.01.2026 01:24
Someone tells you what they've endured—and hearing it, you'd agree they were wronged. Yet something in the quality of their victimization leaves you conflicted. You want to empathize, to help. But you're also put off by a stance you may, out of your own sense of self, wish to disavow. Who has never felt like a victim at some time or another? Weak, powerless, finding strength only in righteous indignation—in woundedness and perhaps a bruised ego wanting revenge? And many find that when they can "let go" of this sense of victimization, many things start to improve. But shaming people out of victimization doesn't help, because shame is already a core factor.
