Mind Matters: Scapegoating, another defense

“… Aaron shall bring forward the live goat. Laying both hands on its head, he shall confess over it all the sinful faults and transgressions of the Israelites, and so put them on the goat’s head. He shall then have it led into the desert by an attendant. Since the goat is to carry off their inequities to an isolated region, it must be sent away into the desert.” (Leviticus 16:20-23)

There you have the biblical origin of the scapegoat. Greeks had their form of scapegoat too, whereby a cripple or beggar or criminal would be cast out of the community because of some natural disaster.

That was then, this is now—and, scapegoating still abounds. Family therapists years ago noted how a dysfunctional family might cast a member in the role of identified patient. This is the person perceived as having the problem, while in fact this individual is “unconsciously selected to act out the family’s conflicts as a diversion; who is the split-off carrier of (the perhaps trans-generational) family disturbance.” (Wikipedia!)

Generally speaking, scapegoating is singling out an individual, group, or country for negative treatment or blame. Scapegoating may be a defense against facing ourselves —“not my fault, but yours and theirs”— it is also a defense against the reality of our own vulnerability.

Let me bring this closer to home. Ever notice how we often blame the victim for the trauma that befalls him or her? When a young woman is raped, often we hear “she was provocative, she went down the wrong street, what was she doing out at that hour,” etc.

When Trayvon Martin was killed, the rumor mill took off, defaming the victim. Even closer to home, I recall how a family, in the grief group I facilitate, suffered not only the death of their son, but the despicable reactions of people posting on the internet how they were bad parents for allowing their 12-year-old to “ride his bicycle on that street.”

We scapegoat unconsciously all the time. I remember being blamed by some people for my having miscarriages. “Well, you know you should have tried to get pregnant sooner,” or “Do you have an anger problem?” or “Are you sure you’re eating right?”

In all these cases the scapegoat-maker is protecting himself or herself from the inevitable vicissitudes of life: “Must be your fault, therefore that can’t happen to me.” The unspoken corollary is “I’m good, you’re bad.”

And what about what is going on in our country right now? Our most recent national scapegoat is Bowe Bergdahl. Rather than welcome home this soldier held captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan for more than five years, there has been a movement afoot to discredit and blame him. When I saw the video footage of his release, I observed a man confused, traumatized, and who perhaps hadn’t seen the light of day for a long while. This man just got out of the desert; there is no need to scapegoat him back into another.

* Kayta Curzie Gajdos holds a doctorate in counseling psychology and is in private practice in Chadds Ford. She welcomes comments at [email protected] or 610-388-2888. Past columns are posted to www.drgajdos.com.

About Kayta Gajdos

Dr. Kathleen Curzie Gajdos ("Kayta") is a licensed psychologist (Pennsylvania and Delaware) who has worked with individuals, couples, and families with a spectrum of problems. She has experience and training in the fields of alcohol and drug addictions, hypnosis, family therapy, Jungian theory, Gestalt therapy, EMDR, and bereavement. Dr. Gajdos developed a private practice in the Pittsburgh area, and was affiliated with the Family Therapy Institute of Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, having written numerous articles for the Family Therapy Newsletter there. She has published in the American Psychological Association Bulletin, the Family Psychologist, and in the Swedenborgian publications, Chrysalis and The Messenger. Dr. Gajdos has taught at the college level, most recently for West Chester University and Wilmington College, and has served as field faculty for Vermont College of Norwich University the Union Institute's Center for Distance Learning, Cincinnati, Ohio. She has also served as consulting psychologist to the Irene Stacy Community MH/MR Center in Western Pennsylvania where she supervised psychologists in training. Currently active in disaster relief, Dr. Gajdos serves with the American Red Cross and participated in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts as a member of teams from the Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.Now living in Chadds Ford, in the Brandywine Valley of eastern Pennsylvania, Dr. Gajdos combines her private practice working with individuals, couples and families, with leading workshops on such topics as grief and healing, the impact of multigenerational grief and trauma shame, the shadow and self, Women Who Run with the Wolves, motherless daughters, and mediation and relaxation. Each year at Temenos Retreat Center in West Chester, PA she leads a griefs of birthing ritual for those who have suffered losses of procreation (abortions, miscarriages, infertility, etc.); she also holds yearly A Day of Re-Collection at Temenos.Dr. Gajdos holds Master's degrees in both philosophy and clinical psychology and received her Ph.D. in counseling at the University of Pittsburgh. Among her professional affiliations, she includes having been a founding member and board member of the C.G. Jung Educational Center of Pittsburgh, as well as being listed in Who's Who of American Women. Currently, she is a member of the American Psychological Association, The Pennsylvania Psychological Association, the Delaware Psychological Association, the American Family Therapy Academy, The Association for Death Education and Counseling, and the Delaware County Mental Health and Mental Retardation Board. Woven into her professional career are Dr. Gajdos' pursuits of dancing, singing, and writing poetry.