The Unseen Burden: Grappling with the Scapegoat Complex
My own Personal Journey with it
For a long time in my life, I felt like no one cared, that the world is just a cold empty winter desert. That any kind of genuine kindness, safety or that I even mattered was forever out of reach. Which is something I walked around with for most of my life. So I felt for two decades uncared for, unloved, worthless, unseen, unheard and terrified of people in real life. Especially the various negative labels and the scapegoating itself made me feel as if I was not human. Especially after things I was told in high school that associated me with dark and evil things. I felt that somehow everything was my fault. So I tackled the entire Collective Shadow and trying to solve the Culture War and even wanting to solve evil itself. As it felt my responsibility to do so.
However the last three years I had been working on healing myself. Especially the last year I started to touch deeper on these specific aspects. I had made a lot of progress last year, until in September the harassment happened. Which shattered my sense of safety and thus the progress I had made so far. I remember crying deeply about it. How it felt like all my progress had been undone in a single moment. With the very thing I so hard had tried to overcome reinforced once more.
For a while I dealt with hyper-vigilance and acute stress disorder. Where in dreams my Anima had been in a car crash. Symbolizing the impact it had on my emotional well-being and thus my emotional self. Yet after on top of this dealing with losing my family and the break up with my girlfriend. This was too much emotionally to handle. It spiralled me right back into the darkness I worked so hard to climb out for years. And I did not feel like I had the emotional strength left to go on.
Key Aspects of the Scapegoat Complex
When it comes to the process of tackling the scapegoat complex. This was divided into different stages of the process. To free myself from it. Which was the final goal of the healing process. Even if initially it was not clear to me yet that this was what my unconscious was working towards. Yet that is the nature of such explorations.
Below are the important aspects of the complex;
Victim-child: This aspect relates to the wounded inner child, which symbolizes unresolved emotional pain or trauma from past experiences, often stemming from childhood.
Wanderer: This represents the individual's journey of feeling lost or disconnected, both physically and emotionally. This aspect reflects a sense of aimlessness or searching for meaning and identity in life.
Accuser: In the modern complex, the accuser aspect, acting as an inner critic, assumes the role of a condemning judge, that demands absolute perfection and adherence to rigid norms. Frequently, this aspect remains detached from awareness, concealed close to the inner child seeking acceptance. Which also often leads to perfectionism tendencies or taking on more burdens than needed. Which is tied to a sense of duty.
Priest: This represents the embodiment of moral and societal norms, values, and expectations. It symbolizes the internalized voice of authority or conscience that guides individuals' decisions and actions based on societal or moral standards. This has a role in perpetuating the scapegoat complex through judgment and the promise of redemption. Which can perpetuate feelings of unworthiness and helplessness.
External redeemer: This is an external figure or force that is looked to for salvation or deliverance from suffering or adversity. This aspect involves placing hope or reliance on someone or something outside of oneself to bring about resolution or salvation.
Internal redeemer: This is the inner essence within ourselves, what some call the higher self, but really is the true Self. The person who we were, and what our fullest unique potential is. The gift hidden within us, that we can share with the world.
Arkteia, Koryos, and the Path to Assertiveness
Now when it comes to the Arkteia (Artemis) and Koryos (Wotan) pattern. Each of these are different types of ancient rites of passage, which tackle the wanderer archetype. These rituals are key in cultivating assertiveness, reconnect back to instinct and with this overcome feelings of helplessness and also cultivate the needed ego-strength to challenge the inner critic. At the same time really dismantling the Freudian super-ego in the process. With the slow cultivation of assertiveness, at the same time any people-pleasing tendencies need to be challenged as well. As this is a specific persona to be challenged, as it is what keeps the victim-child aspect locked up.
The process of challenging this persona takes time, and can be very uncomfortable. As often a sense of perceived worth is tied to this behaviour of caretaking. Where the underlying motivation is that if I care for others, they will surely finally care for me. In an unconscious hope to be accepted. Though these underlying dynamics operate unconsciously, and as such the person would consciously associate themselves with a caregiving role, even if really their inner child is driving the underlying behaviour. Which in most cases as the general pattern of people sought out to be taken care of are the ones that are emotionally distant such as the distorted Apollo type Animus or the type disconnected from their Anima, these would be unable to actually create the true genuine connection needed. Which is also why such individuals are sought out, as this emotional distance, keeps the victim-child associated with vulnerability and emotional honesty at bay. However this pattern tends to create friction where long term frustrations that the persona can’t allow, burst forth at later times.
Which is why cultivating assertiveness is key as this allows both a constructive outlet for pent up frustrations, and also starts to empower the individual. Which allows them to slowly realise their own worth, the need for boundaries and their own desires. Even if initially there will be an ongoing conflict between these desires and the inner critic. Eventually with the wanderer aspect, the accuser aspect and the people-pleasing persona taken care off, the last move to be made is the bringing together of victim-child and inner redeemer. Which is what I also touched upon in this article about the Apollonian-Dionysian dichotomy.
Universality of the Scapegoat Complex
On a side note, often people obsessed about figures like Dionysus and also the Sovereignty goddess or other linked feminine archetypes, to a great deal, tend to be working through this complex. As these are the archetypes that also Sylvia Brinton Perera identified as key in overcoming it. However this complex is present in all individuals, the only difference is the degree to which it is reinforced and active. As everyone has an inner critic or underlying perfectionism tendencies, people pleasing tendencies or issues with belonging and early childhood trauma. Though this is more pronounced and pervasive in a negative sense when the individual itself is cast into the scapegoat role. Otherwise people generally tend to operate within the confines of the complex without necessarily being strongly identified with any particular aspect.
Where for instance a focus on Aphrodite linked to love, beauty, and the desire for connection can indicate a struggle with self-worth, acceptance, and the desire to be seen and valued for who one truly is. Which ties to the underlying themes as well. Where taking on an excessive workload can be a manifestation of people-pleasing tendencies and an overdeveloped sense of duty. This behaviour often stems from a desire to prove one’s worth and gain acceptance, common traits in those with the scapegoat complex. Where finally a strong sense of duty to be a good person could be a manifestation of the priest aspect, indicating a struggle with self-worth and an internal conflict between ones true self and societal expectations. Creating a split between discipline and perfectionism applied to oneself and mercy, compassion applied to others. With assertiveness cut off and denied and labelled aggression.
Genuine Interactions and the Inner Redeemer
What is important regarding the scapegoat complex in the last stages when dealing with the victim-child aspect, which also ties to the Divine Child archetype and with it the Self-Child, is that this process should be handled with care. Sylvia Brinton Perera in her case studies had noticed that regarding this aspect, often a certain type of duality is present within the core belief. So with it this part of the complex. This duality for me personally, tied to the duality of either no one cares and can show kindness OR if they do it is because they are paid to do so, or have something in mind for some kind of particular gain or hidden motive. This belief then also directly tied into the underlying unworthiness that the victim-child aspect feels regarding acceptance by the Self. This being the accepting Self, instead of the inner critic that is mistaken as the Self. So the whole and centre of the psyche of the individual. Which also ties to the soul.
Though the final goal of the corrective experience is not to become dependent on the individual and keep projecting the accepting Self onto the Other. As the goal of this is the process of internalisation of the experience and the tied idea of genuine kindness and care exists. This experience being key for the emotional self to realise this. As any cognitive work on it’s own is insufficient to break through the complex. Change and with it true transformation occurs through affect. So the processing of the underlying deep-seated emotions is what thus breaks down the psychological complex itself. Which I wrote more extensively about regarding the process of breaking it down in the article called the Korybantic Path.
So for myself the last month I was on purpose seeking out positive interactions that were genuine. Such as what I wrote about in “Finding Hope in an Unexpected Place”. The interactions have to be genuine and one has to be vigilant about any underlying shadow material or Anima projections that might derail it. As only these kind of experiences and interactions not driven by anything underlying would allow for the necessary breakthrough, and thus release a significant amount of pent-up emotions. Key in the process of emotional processing is also to make sure that when phrases come up with the emotional purging, like someone cares about me, or someone was actually kind to me, to lean into this actively. As this touches upon the core belief, which then allows for prolonged purging of emotions.
Creative Expression and Emotional Processing
The technique called "emotional flooding," is where you intentionally expose yourself to the emotions you've been avoiding. For example, you set aside time to look at pictures of the past, listen to music that reminds you of the underlying theme, or visit a place that you associate with it. Next to seeking out corrective experiences that touch upon the relevant themes. Yet it is important to be in a safe place before doing this, as it can also cause regression to earlier states. Such as earlier childhood. And it is important that you can really pay attention to the emotions that come up. So one should not try to suppress or push them away, but instead allow oneself to fully feel and experience them. Where you can also rely on your imagination to create a mental image or scenario that can help you to experience the emotions you are trying to process. Which is why another way I worked on this is to write fiction about such key themes. So in my case some of the emotions were tied to the loss of my friend Renata who died in childhood. Where for me she was the last person who cared about me. So I let my unconscious guide the creative process and write about what came up. Which then touched upon the underlying emotions.
Connecting with the Self
This processing of emotions in the end allows the tied grief, feelings of abandonment, worthlessness, next to feeling unloved and uncared for, to be processed. Which is key in bringing this unconscious content into consciousness. Which also allows for the healing of the victim-child aspect and the Anima which similarly is often wounded as well. So how more these emotions are processed, how more of a clear connection to the Self can be established, where feelings of warmth and underlying care which tie directly to the platonic forms of the parental figures and the accepting Self can arise from within the individual. Thus through this re-establishing the link with the Self, and the wholeness of the individual. Where also moving beyond notions of sin and virtue, good and bad, and order and chaos, start to become necessary to overcome it. As this combination of emotional processing and seeing through these dualities is the final push in overcoming the complex. Through this one moves beyond the egoic and civilizational borders put onto the divine, which create the underlying psychological structure that creates the foundation for the existence of the scapegoat complex itself.