Scapegoating

Template:Short description Template:Hatnote

File:Albrecht Dürer - Man of Sorrows with Hands Bound - WGA7346.jpg

Template:Lang (Template:Lit), drypoint by Albrecht Dürer 1512 depicting Jesus Christ

Scapegoating is the practice of singling out a person or group for unmerited blame and consequent negative treatment. Scapegoating may be conducted by individuals against individuals (e.g. "he did it, not me!"), individuals against groups (e.g., "I couldn't see anything because of all the tall people"), groups against individuals (e.g., "He was the reason our team didn't win"), and groups against groups.

A scapegoat may be an adult, child, sibling, employee, or peer, or it may be an ethnic, political or religious group, or a country. A whipping boy, identified patient, or fall guy are forms of scapegoat.

Scapegoating has its origins in the scapegoat ritual of atonement described in chapter 16 of the Biblical Book of Leviticus, in which a goat (or ass) is released into the wilderness bearing all the sins of the community, which have been placed on the goat's head by a priest.<ref>Wyatt-Brown, Bertram (2007) (1982) Southern Honor: Ethics and Behavior in the Old South. New York: Oxford University Press. Template:Isbn. p.441</ref>

At the individual level

A medical definition of scapegoating is:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Template:Blockquote

Scapegoated groups throughout history have included almost every imaginable group of people: genders, religions, people of different races, nations, or sexual orientations, people with different political beliefs, or people differing in behaviour from the majority. However, scapegoating may also be applied to organizations, such as governments, corporations, or various political groups.

Its archetype

Jungian analyst Sylvia Brinton Perera situates its mythology of shadow and guilt.<ref>Perera, The Scapegoat Complex (1986).</ref> Individuals experience it at the archetypal level. As an ancient social process to rid a community of its past evil deeds and reconnect it to the sacred realm, the scapegoat appeared in a biblical rite,<ref>Book of Leviticus, Chapter 16, per the holy day of Yom Kippur.</ref> which involved two goats and the pre-Judaic, chthonic god Azazel.<ref>Perera (1986), p.17: the Hebrews "later considered Azazel a fallen angel". Perera at p.112 n.28, citing to Louis Ginzberg.</ref> In the modern scapegoat complex, however, "the energy field has been radically broken apart" and the libido "split off from consciousness". Azazel's role is deformed into an accuser of the scapegoated victim.<ref>Perera (1986), p.18 (two quotes re modern secular culture, Azazel's role debased).</ref>

Blame for breaking a perfectionist moral code, for instance, might be measured out by aggressive scapegoaters. Themselves often wounded, the scapegoaters can be sadistic, superego accusers with brittle personas, who have driven their own shadows underground from where such are projected onto the victim. The scapegoated victim may then live in a hell of felt unworthiness, retreating from consciousness, burdened by shadow and transpersonal guilt,<ref>Cf. C. G. Jung, "A psychological view of conscience" in his Collected Works (Princeton: Bollingen 1953–1979), vol. 10, cited by Perera (1986), re pp. 11–12 n.8, 14 n.21, 33 n.45.</ref> and hiding from the pain of self-understanding. Therapy includes modeling self-protective skills for the victim's battered ego, and guidance in the search for inner integrity, to find the victim's own voice.<ref>Perera (1986): archetype (pp. 9–10, 16, 18, 48–49, 73, 77, 83, 98); ancient rite (pp. 8, 11–25, two goats 16–17, 88–97); modern complex (18–29, 30, 98, quotes at 18); accusers (9, 18–21, blames victim 20, superego 21, 28–29, 30–33, shadow 30, projected 31, also wounded 32, 55); victims (11–12, 15–16, hiding 24, 26–28, hell 26, ego 28, 33, 34–35, 43–72, burden 98); within families (30–33, 35, 53–54, 73, 76, 99); therapy (18, 22, 24–25, 26–29, voice 29, 33, 41–43, 47, 69–72, 86–97).</ref>

Projection

Template:Main Unwanted thoughts and feelings can be unconsciously projected onto another who becomes a scapegoat for one's own problems. This concept can be extended to projection by groups. In this case the chosen individual, or group, becomes the scapegoat for the group's problems. "Political agitation in all countries is full of such projections, just as much as the backyard gossip of little groups and individuals."<ref>M.-L. von Franz, in C. G. Jung, Man and his Symbols (London 1964) p. 181</ref> Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung considered indeed that "there must be some people who behave in the wrong way; they act as scapegoats and objects of interest for the normal ones".<ref>C. G Jung, Analytical Psychology (London 1976) p. 108</ref>

Scapegoat theory of intergroup conflict

The scapegoat theory of intergroup conflict provides an explanation for the correlation between times of relative economic despair and increases in prejudice and violence toward outgroups.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Studies of anti-black violence (racist violence) in the southern United States between 1882 and 1930 show a correlation between poor economic conditions and outbreaks of violence (e.g. lynchings) against black people. The correlation between the price of cotton (the principal product of the area at that time) and the number of lynchings of black men by whites ranged from −0.63 to −0.72, suggesting that a poor economy induced white people to take out their frustrations by attacking an outgroup.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Scapegoating as a group necessitates that ingroup members settle on one specific target to blame for their problems.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In management, scapegoating is a known practice in which a lower staff employee is blamed for the mistakes of senior executives. This is often due to lack of accountability in upper management.<ref name="it-scapegoat">The Art of Scapegoating in IT Projects PM Hut, 15 October 2009</ref>

Scapegoat mechanism

Literary critic and philosopher Kenneth Burke first coined and described the expression scapegoat mechanism in his books Permanence and Change (1935),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and A Grammar of Motives (1945).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> These works influenced some philosophical anthropologists, such as Ernest Becker and René Girard.

Girard developed the concept much more extensively as an interpretation of human culture. In Girard's view, it is humankind, not God, who has need for various forms of atoning violence. Humans are driven by desire for that which another has or wants (mimetic desire). This causes a triangulation of desire and results in conflict between the desiring parties. This mimetic contagion increases to a point where society is at risk; it is at this point that the scapegoat mechanism<ref>Mimesis – The Scapegoat Model, Jean-Baptiste Dumont</ref> is triggered. This is the point where one person is singled out as the cause of the trouble and is expelled or killed by the group. This person is the scapegoat. Social order is restored as people are contented that they have solved the cause of their problems by removing the scapegoated individual, and the cycle begins again.

Scapegoating serves as a psychological relief for a group of people. Girard contends that this is what happened in the narrative of Jesus of Nazareth, the central figure in Christianity. The difference between the scapegoating of Jesus and others, Girard believes, is that in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, he is shown to be an innocent victim; humanity is thus made aware of its violent tendencies and the cycle is broken. Thus Girard's work is significant as a reconstruction of the Christus Victor atonement theory.

References

Notes Template:Reflist

Further reading

Books

Template:Refbegin

Colman, A.D. Up from Scapegoating: Awakening Consciousness in Groups (1995)
Douglas, Tom Scapegoats: Transferring Blame (1995)
Dyckman, JM & Cutler JA Scapegoats at Work: Taking the Bull's-Eye Off Your Back (2003)
Girard, René: Violence and the Sacred (1972)
Girard, René: The Scapegoat (1986)
Jasinski, James: "Sourcebook on Rhetoric" (2001)
Perera, Sylvia Brinton, The Scapegoat Complex: Toward a Mythology of Shadow and Guilt (Toronto: Inner City 1986), Studies in Jungian Psychology By Jungian Analysts
Pillari V Scapegoating in Families: Intergenerational Patterns of Physical and Emotional Abuse (1991)
Quarmby K Scapegoat: Why We Are Failing Disabled People (2011)
Wilcox C.W. Scapegoat: Targeted for Blame (2009)
Zemel, Joel: Scapegoat, the extraordinary legal proceedings following the 1917 Halifax Explosion (2012)