Have you ever been the victim of a DARVO attack?
It is a manipulation strategy of abusers. Abusers use DARVO to shame victims into believing they are responsible for the abuse.
The DARVO process is:
🧨Deny the behavior…
🧨Attack the individual doing the confronting…
🧨Reverse the roles of…
🧨Victim and…
🧨Offender so the perpetrator assumes the victim role and the victim becomes the alleged offender.
It is based on the work of psychologist Jennifer Freyd’s 1997 article (source below).
People who are likely candidates for DARVO are:
✂️Survivors who confront their abuser
✂️Whistleblowers
✂️Socially vulnerable individuals or groups
It can sound like this…
🚩See what you made me do?
🚩I’m not sure what you’re talking about – I couldn’t even imagine doing __________.
🚩What’s wrong with you? You’ve got some serious trust issues. Take a look at YOURSELF for once.
🚩If only you had/hadn't ….
🚩I never said that (when you know they did).
You. Are. Never. Responsible. For. Abuse.
Full stop.
Source: Freyd, J.J. (1997) Violations of power, adaptive blindness, and betrayal trauma theory. Feminism & Psychology, 7, 22-32.