DARVO: Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender.

Interesting take on what Martina Anderson’s tweet (now duly apologised for and we understand, Martina duly balled out by her immediate superiors, whoever they may be) meant, Fionola Meredith, adding this useful little piece of context…

Here’s an abbreviated quote from her BelTel column

Martina Anderson may not know it, but this week the Sinn Fein MLA and former IRA bomber produced a textbook example of what psychologists call DARVO. The acronym stands for Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender.

This is a tactic used by narcissists, emotional blackmailers, high-conflict individuals and other unpleasant, manipulative people. They frequently employ it to deflect blame from themselves and to avoid being held accountable for their actions.

Conveniently, it allows them to do or say the most appalling, contemptible things, and then turn it around so that they get to be the poor oppressed victim.

She also notes..

By stating that the allocation of Troubles pension money would “discriminate, criminalise and exclude” Ms Anderson inverted the whole situation. Hey presto!

Now it’s the victims themselves who are the aggressors: corrupt agents of the state, viciously discriminating against those poor, sweet, defenceless republican ex-prisoners, criminalising and excluding them from their rightful benefits.

That Sinn Féin looks with contempt upon the victims of the campaign it continues to laud. What’s reveal by Ms Anderson’s well structured and thought out (yet somehow ‘clumsy’) tweet, is the degree to which Sinn Féin’s internal thinking is out of step with the wider population.

DARVO is the populist way… It’s evident the in autocratic populist projects the world over, and the Angrynomics (blindness in the centre-ground parties to the need to tackle material inequality) that feeds it…

Photo by Anemone123 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA

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