This months segment is “Bullies Play The Victim.”  Over the last few months, we have examined several characteristics of a bully. Dealing with a bully can be both a lengthy and complicated process.

 

      One of the most significant complications arises outside the bully—that being the circle or community where the bully holds clout. A collective group can take on a bully’s agenda feeling thoroughly  convinced that they are doing a good thing. This stems from the often overlooked bullying characteristic of a “Bully Playing The Victim.”

 

      Playing the victim is arguably one of the most powerful strategies a bully can utilize because the emotional charge it generates fuels support. With this maneuver, a bully is able to turn the table on their victim. This happens regularly in the courtrooms—lawyers often defend guilty clients by casting them as victims. When the jury deliberates, we see the complications surface. Although they were initially influenced by the client and the lawyer, it’s no longer about just them; it has now grown into a community of people whose emotions have been tampered with. The primary goal all along was to cause the jury doubt towards the real victim by inciting sympathy for the guilty party.

 

      This can manifest itself in all types of real-life bullying scenarios. Many times a bully, because of a broken background, actually does feel like a victim. They have a hard time separating their acts of bullying from feelings that they are being victimized themselves. Especially if onlookers do not show support for their efforts of control. This compels them to heighten their pseudo-victim platform. The bully capitalizes on their victim’s emotional expressions to do this. It becomes tactical in that to provoke an emotional response from their victim, will make their victim look foolish. This, in turn, garners speculations that they are being mistreated. Bullies manipulate to gain false credibility through these emotional instigations. On top of this, they derive a measure of satisfaction in goading their victim into an emotional response—it shows vulnerability, and for a bully exposing vulnerability is empowering.

 

      Dealing with a bully can be extremely tricky, especially when it comes to the community dynamic. If you can answer yes to any of these questions, you might be dealing with a bully or a group of people under the influence of the bully’s “victim mentality.”

 

1.    Is there someone you know who is trying to keep control by using a victim status?

2.    Do you sense a growing division or rallying of sympathy for someone who has a history of being bullish?

3.    Is a person in your life displaying any of the previously discussed characteristics of a bully: discrediting, demanding loyalty, a need for superiority, or leveraging a victim mentality?

 

      When helping someone who is being bullied, one of the best things we can do is employ logic rather than emotion. No matter how emotionally destabilizing a bully’s actions or remarks can feel, remember they are trying to push emotional buttons to build their personal “victim” platforms. If we can identify and recognize this pattern, it will help us to replace our emotional reactions with intellectual reason and acumen. (Paula Masters)