“The victim” and the democratization of victimhood

Many of our current victimhood-related discourses, both in and outside of academic, are only tangentially related to experiences of victimization. They are better understood as attesting to the rise of a new way of psychosocial being known as the Victim. This new Simmelian social type, like all of Georg Simmel’s social types (e.g., the Stranger and the Poor), emerges at the point of balance between several nonconflicting dichotomies: weakness/strength, sameness/difference, desired/abhorred, temporal distance/temporal proximity, the institutionalization/of individual experiences, and apology/for the unforgivable. This constellation of dichotomies emerged from developments within the wider societal context. A better understanding of the nature of the Victim, as well as the historical developments that led to its existence, can help us to better understand many of the victimhood-related conversations currently taking place in the field of psychology, in the social sciences and humanities more broadly, in academic institutions, and in society at large. A recent public statement by the American Psychological Association is examined to illustrate how the Victim often better explains such social discourses than direct reference to victimization or victimhood. Thus, the social theory of Georg Simmel can provide valuable insights into the current work of psychologists and leading psychological institutions, such as the American Psychological Association. What is more, as an open-ended, unresolvable form of social life that has spread from the (intellectual) elites to the masses, the Victim represents the democratization of victimhood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)