In his article “Unraveling the Mindset of Victimhood,” the American psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman recommended taking the following short test to determine whether you have a “victimhood mindset”:
“Rate how much you agree with each of these items on a scale of 1 (“not me at all”) to 5 (“this is so me”):
- It is important to me that people who hurt me acknowledge that an injustice has been done to me.
- I think I am much more conscientious and moral in my relations with other people compared to their treatment of me.
- When people who are close to me feel hurt by my actions, it is very important for me to clarify that justice is on my side.
- It is very hard for me to stop thinking about the injustice others have done to me.”
If you scored high (4 or 5) on all of these items, you may have what psychologists have identified as a “tendency for interpersonal victimhood.”
I would add the following statement: “I define myself first and foremost as a member of a distinct social group (preferably a minority) that has been discriminated against all over the world and for centuries or millennia.”
The Israeli psychologist Rahav Gabay defines........