For those of us on the path of self-discovery and recovery, it is a journey which takes a long time and requires much reflection so we can heal. We eventually get to the place of feeling as though we connected all the dots. We connected the dots and made sense of what happened in our life so we have clarity, liberation, the ability to both live in the present moment and to let go of bad actors who like to hurt us.
As I gained clarity, liberation, and the ability to let go, I saw how the family scapegoat, in a narcissistic family regime, is like the child called “it”. Family scapegoats are the emotional receptacle for all the stress in the family. We become the “it” – the punching bag, the garbage can, the family football, the kicking post, the tarred and feathered, the crucified, the crazy one, the troublemaker, the defective one, the discard, and labeled narcissist, etc. Historically, for so long, family scapegoats suffered in silence and were unable to name what happened to them. Some did not survive the family brutality. Now we know about family mobbing, the brutality, the false narrative, that scapegoating is evil, and that evil seems to run in families.
Though we were unfairly designated the role of family scapegoat, we wanted to believe in our parents. We needed to believe they would love and care for us so we could survive. After years of recovery, I no longer believe that fantasy. I now see the personality disorders in both parents who took no responsibility and, instead, unjustly scapegoated on one child. That one child, as do all family scapegoats, got beat up emotionally, verbally, physically, spiritually, and or sexually. We end up with more illness and injury than the other children in the family because of the targeted abuse and neglect. We become the “identified patient” and have high ACE scores.
David Pelzer was the family scapegoat. The abuse he suffered and survived was publicly exposed for being one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history. He was beaten and starved by his mother who tortured him with games that left him nearly dead. David survived because he internally fought for his survival. All family scapegoats have to internally fight for their survival when they are surrounded and targeted for the family scapegoating game. The family mob, who hates one child so much they kill the spirit of that child, is dangerous. It’s a matter of degree, on a continuum, with how severe the family scapegoating abuse (FSA) will be for one child.
For me, I now know the story from beginning to end. When I started my journey of self-discovery and recovery, I thought something was wrong with me. Now I know that was just the false narrative brainwashing from personality disordered parents who would not take responsibility for their abuse. Now that I finally connected all the dots, I realize the personality disorders will never acknowledge what they did. They will never know that I know who they are and what they did. The entire family would go nuts and attack if I shattered their false narrative with truth. They thought they got away with it all. They worked hard to keep me down so I could never figure out the FSA game and tell. My life review, and connecting the dots, is not for their contemptuous eyes. My life review is for my liberation and for building a life with kindness rather than narcissistic abuse:
- preverbal trauma which resulted in dissociation,
- labeled stubborn which was, instead, dissociation when the malignant narcissist raged,
- survived a tag team of both the malignant narcissist and BPD/covert narcissist who worked together to take their issues out on one young child. The covert played victim and martyr to manipulate the malignant to attack me with rage,
- more punishment when the tag team thought I was being stubborn rather than seeing I froze with terror when the tag team attacked,
- chronic illness as a result of a stressful environment and being target for the tag team. No other child in the family suffered as I did. Siblings may never admit they participated in the family mobbing,
- immune system deficiency as a result of stress, chronic illness and too many antibiotics,
- series of injuries including stitches which no other child suffered,
- setup by the tag team to unknowingly marry a sociopath because they both enjoyed the drama and needed control,
- surviving the steve sociopath, health crisis, sixteen years of marriage, ten years post-divorce stalking, harassment and assault,
- family court crisis corruption, parental alienation,
- hated for being a truthteller
- scapegoated by every personality disorder, flying monkeys in both the family and court system who enabled the sociopath,
- FSA my entire life,
- walking away from a mob of energy vampires.
A New Life
There is no turning back. Family knows what we lived through but they pretend I’m the only one with the problem. They pretend they are perfect. They know i.e. my younger brother said ‘no one could live in that house without knowing about the violence’ when I asked him if he saw the violence I saw. My children know what the steve sociopath did and documented some of what they lived through. They admit the sociopath does not care about them yet the FSA continues. None have remorse for FSA. Worse, when I acknowledged I was the family scapegoat, I was immediately told with vehemence, by the personality disorder, “You are not!”
I’m not interested in relationships with people who enjoy hurting me, and who take no responsibility, even if they are family. Dave Pelzer knows how to move on. He says that bad things happen to people every single day and we don’t want to get stuck in the past horrors. We have to give ourselves time to process what happened, feel our feelings, and decide what to do about the things that happen. We have to ask ourselves if we did what was right or if we did what was wrong. Bottom line, he says, is “be happy now damn it”. His book is advertised as follows:
“#1 New York Times Bestseller
#1 International Best Seller
On the New York Times Bestseller List for over 6 years
One Child’s Courage to Survive
A Child Called “It” is the unforgettable story of a child whose courage and unyielding determination enabled him to survive extreme life-threatening odds.
As a child, Dave was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who played tortuous games–games that left him Dave nearly dead. With only his willpower to survive, Dave learned how to play his Mother’s sinister games in order to survive because she no longer considered Dave a son but a slave, and no longer a boy but an “It.”
Although A Child Called “It” contains situations of mistreatment Dave suffered, it is a real life story of the indomitable human spirit. This gripping account is told through the eyes of a child–who will pay any price in order to succeed.
The first part of a trilogy series, A Child Called “It” is currently translated in nearly forty languages and has been read by millions throughout the world. Dave is the living example that all of us have the capability to better ourselves no matter what the odds.
One’s life is forever changed after living through the eyes of A Child Called “It.”
Apple Podcasts produced by Dave Pelzer: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dave-pelzer-show/id1523082322
![](https://empathsdodgesociopaths.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/image-13.png?w=259)
https://www.davepelzer.com/books/childcalledit.html
Kindness Matters, Truth Matters
After experiencing both a narcissistic and family scapegoating regime, I conclude there are two major values missing in these families: truth and authentic kindness. Instead of kindness, nurturing and respect, these families are permeated with:
- rage
- manipulation
- deception
- smear campaigns
- undermining
- guilt and shame
- playing victim
- gossiping to whoever will listen
- scapegoating
- violence
- gaslighting
- faking illness
- psycho-emotional abuse
- child abuse and neglect
- substance abuse
- affairs
- religiosity
- focus on looking good
- hiding relationship crimes
- using children as weapons
- silent treatment
- lack of empathy and nurturance
- open, mutual, and respectful communication
- lack of trust
- fear of feelings
- avoiding both individual and family therapy
Someone has to be a cycle-breaker so we become rooted deeper into love:
![](https://empathsdodgesociopaths.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/image-11.png?w=720)
Recovery When Truth is Finally Recognized
“The ORDINARY RESPONSE TO ATROCITIES is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this is the meaning of the word unspeakable.
Atrocities, however, refuse to be buried. Equally as powerful as the desire to deny atrocities is the conviction that denial does not work. Folk wisdom is filled with ghosts who refuse to rest in their graves until their stories are told. Murder will out. Remembering and telling the truth about terrible events are prerequisites both for the restoration of the social order and for the healing of individual victims.
The conflict between the will to deny horrible events and the will to proclaim them aloud is the central dialectic of psychological trauma. People who have survived atrocities often tell their stories in a highly emotional, contradictory, and fragmented manner that undermines their credibility and thereby serves the twin imperatives of truth-telling and secrecy. When the truth is finally recognized, survivors can begin their recovery. But far too often secrecy prevails, and the story of the traumatic event surfaces not as a verbal narrative but as a symptom.”
― Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror
Song by Katy Perry “Roar” if you feel like you’ve had enough of FSA. “You held me down, but I got up…get ready cuz I’ve had enough. I see it all. I see it now!”
![](https://empathsdodgesociopaths.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/image-12.png?w=720)