Exploitation of Victims' Desire for Revenge: A Natural Psychological Mechanism and Its Unnatural Production in Culture and Politics

This paper elaborates on key themes of the on-line project Victims' Symptom—PTSD and Culture. A clinical, psychiatric definition of victim, rather than a cultural one, is used to distinguish real from false victims. The danger of the media production of false victims lies in its power to re-victimize the original victims, aside from gains that a false victim may win by taking on the role or attitudes of a victim. Contrary to the common stress on financial benefits of being a victim, this article focuses on the negative economy of revenge, as a postponed reaction by real victims, that if institutionalized may provoke or support and even increase the production of new fatalities.