When the harm and suffering we experienced are already in the past, but psychological pain continues every day, it signals that deeper inner work is needed. In Jungian analytical psychology, archetypes are primordial patterns filled with powerful emotional energy, stronger than the ego, and deeply rooted in the collective unconscious. They have a profound influence on how individuals perceive the world, behave, and make choices.
One of the archetypes that often emerges in therapy — usually completely unconsciously, yet with strong influence — is the Victim Archetype. Its role is crucial: if left unrecognized, it sabotages and blocks the therapeutic process, hinders inner healing, and paradoxically works against essential goals such as inner and outer freedom, self-respect, and equality — values that are often defined as therapy’s aims.
The narrative of the Victim Archetype is deeply painful and carries a special emotional status. Its most characteristic belief is: “I was once hurt, and therefore I am now released from responsibility for my actions and my feelings.”
This dynamic allows the individual to avoid painful confrontation with the consequences of their own actions, inaction, or choices. Instead of seeing suffering as an opportunity for growth, a person trapped in the grip of the Victim Archetype projects the causes of their suffering outward — onto parents, partners, colleagues, society, or fate.
In therapy, such a stance sabotages the healing process.
The process of individuation and psychological development demands the courage to turn inward — to acknowledge one’s own wounds and recognize the complex role a person may have unconsciously played in sustaining long-term suffering. Past trauma often creates an internal oppressor, and if left unaddressed, the individual continues to psychologically harm themselves.
A person strongly identified with the Victim Archetype clings to an image of themselves as helpless, powerless, incomplete, and unworthy of love or respect. This prevents healthy ego development and the formation of a strong, integrated personality — a personality capable of carrying pain without letting pain define it, and capable of shaping the future with resilience.
According to Jung, freedom is not merely political or social autonomy; it is inner liberation from unconscious patterns.
True freedom demands that an individual takes responsibility for their psychic life. The Victim Archetype resists this: it fears the idea of freedom because freedom implies responsibility. Living freely means accepting that while we cannot control what happens to us, we are responsible for our reactions and behavior.
For someone deeply identified with the Victim Archetype, this idea can feel unbearable.
Instead, they unconsciously sabotage growth opportunities, maintaining the familiar inner prison of suffering. Identifying with the Victim Archetype keeps the ego in a humbled, powerless state, preserves a deep sense of inequality in relationships even into adulthood, and creates an illusion of fighting against inequality — while never truly beginning to respect, value, and love oneself.
The hidden goal of the Victim Archetype’s shadow is not genuine equality, but a sense of specialness or moral superiority, gained through suffering.
As a result, instead of striving for inner strengthening and healthier relationships, the Victim Archetype negatively affects ego consciousness and fosters resentment, misunderstanding, and sometimes fuels various forms of dependency and a persistent feeling of injustice.
Unfortunately, these patterns are widely seen in society as well.
Attitudes rooted in the Victim Archetype undermine opportunities for genuine emotional recovery. True healing should be based on understanding past experiences and recognizing human survival strength and resilience as individual resources, accompanied by deep respect for personal and family histories.
Freeing oneself from the influence of the Victim Archetype requires recognizing it not as a fixed identity, but as a temporary stage — a phase meant to transform pain into wisdom, resentment into experience, and survival into strength.
Freedom, equality, and dignity arise not from glorifying victimhood, but from overcoming it.
Only through inner work, resilience, shadow integration, and conscious choice can individuals and societies move toward wholeness, dignity, and true liberation.
Psychotherapy 
Leave a comment