Most parents will never overtly mention any one of their kids as the favorite, but actions speak much louder than words, so ...

A family scapegoat takes on the blame for larger family issues. This person often becomes the black sheep of the family, who doesn't fit in with family norms. A therapist shared signs you might be the ...

Children who are raised in a dysfunctional family often do anything they can to survive day-to-day. Some kids align themselves with their parents as a self-protective measure, while others are put in ...

In interviews for my forthcoming book on verbal abuse, the subject of scapegoating comes up with great regularity; among the forms of verbal abuse used by parents, scapegoating appears to have go-to ...

On Nov. 7, 1938, a young Polish Jew, Herschel Grynszpan, shot a German diplomat, Ernst vom Rath, in France. As a result of this incident, the Nazi Party stoked the anger of the German public. It led ...

Family scapegoating can cause long-term emotional harm, such as trauma and self-harm. Scapegoats are often chosen based on arbitrary factors like birth order or appearance, and this is never the child ...

On the surface, a family scapegoat often looks as if they're the problem child. They might be the college dropout in a legacy of Ivy Leaguers or the introverted gamer in a family of outgoing athletes.