Blaming

Don't Blame Mother

A nationally recognized expert on the psychology of women shows how the angerand agony of the mother-daughter relationship can be replaced with a new bondbased on understanding and respect.

The Trouble with Blame

Blame Society. Blame a bad upbringing. Blame the circumstances. Blame the victim - she may even blame herself. But what about the perpetrator? When the blame is all assigned, will anyone be left to take responsibility? This powerful book takes up the disturbing topic of victimization and blame as a pathology of our time and its consequences for personal responsibility. By probing the psychological dynamics of victims and perpetrators of rape, sexual abuse, and domestic violence, Sharon Lamb seeks to answer some crucial questions: How do victims become victims and sometimes perpetrators? How can we break the psychological pattern of perpetrators blaming others and victims blaming themselves? How do victims and perpetrators view their actions and reactions? And how does our social response to them facilitate patterns of excuse? With clarity and compassion, Lamb examines the theories, excuses, and psychotherapies that strip victims of their power and perpetrators of their agency - and thus deprive them of the means to human dignity, healing, and reparation. She shows how the current practice of painting victims as pure innocents may actually help perpetrators of abuse shirk responsibility for their actions; they too can claim to be victims in their own right, passive and will-less in their wrongdoing.

A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles: part 1. A (1888)