Claim:
Once adaptive bonding forms under coercion, the system turns around and blames the captive for the very adaptations the system required.
Mechanism of Blame:
- The system removes choice.
- The captive adapts for survival.
- The adaptation is moralized as “virtue.”
- The captive is held responsible for performing that virtue.
- Any deviation is punished as failure, betrayal, or defect.
Forms of Blame:
- “Why didn’t she leave?”
- “She must have wanted it.”
- “She stayed, so it couldn’t have been that bad.”
- “Women choose bad men.”
- “She’s just codependent.”
- “She’s enabling him.”
Structural Reality:
- Leaving was dangerous or impossible.
- Compliance was required for safety.
- Loyalty was a survival posture.
- Adaptation was coerced, not chosen.
Function of Blame:
- Protects the captor’s legitimacy.
- Protects the institution’s legitimacy.
- Converts structural coercion into individual responsibility.
- Prevents systemic accountability.
- Keeps captives policing themselves and each other.
Outcome:
Blame becomes a tool of the system, ensuring that the captive’s survival strategies are reframed as personal flaws rather than evidence of coercion.
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