Interpersonal Victimhood: Why Chronic Victim Identity Is Linked to Vulnerable Narcissism
Monday, January 26, 2026.
There is a certain kind of person who feels injured everywhere they go.
Not harmed, exactly.
Not necessarily traumatized.
But persistently wronged—across friendships, partnerships, workplaces, families.
They do not simply suffer.
They organize themselves around suffering.
A recent study published in Personality and Individual Differences offers a precise psychological name for this pattern: the Tendency for Interpersonal Victimhood.
What the research shows—quietly but unmistakably—is that this tendency is strongly associated with vulnerable narcissism, not with objective trauma exposure itself.
This is not a moral claim.
It is a structural one.
What “Victim Mentality” Actually Measures
The phrase “victim mentality” is often used carelessly. The construct studied here is not.
The Tendency for Interpersonal Victimhood (TIV) refers to a stable personality orientation in which a person experiences themselves as a victim across situations, regardless of context. The sense of being wronged is not episodic; it is enduring.
Researchers identify four defining features:
A persistent need for recognition of one’s suffering.
A sense of moral elitism, in which one’s pain is viewed as purer or more legitimate than others.’
Reduced empathy for the suffering of other people.
Chronic rumination on past slights and offenses.
This is not simply remembering harm.
It is relational memory that never closes.
Why Vulnerable Narcissism Is the Key Link
The study distinguishes between two forms of narcissism.
Grandiose Narcissism is outward-facing: confidence, dominance, entitlement, attention-seeking.
Vulnerable Narcissism is inward-facing and far more fragile: entitlement paired with low self-esteem, hypersensitivity to criticism, emotional volatility, and defensive withdrawal. This is also called Covert Narcissism.
The data show that interpersonal victimhood is strongly related to vulnerable narcissism, with both traits linked to neuroticism—the tendency toward emotional instability, anxiety, and difficulty regulating negative affect.
In plain terms:
the chronic victim stance often emerges from a self that cannot tolerate frustration, ambiguity, or ordinary disappointment without collapsing.
Everything feels personal because the self is structurally brittle.
Victim Signaling: Feeling Wronged vs. Using Wrongedness
The researchers also examined victim signaling—the public display of suffering to gain acknowledgment, sympathy, or resources.
Here, the distinction becomes clinically important.
In Vulnerable Narcissism, victim signaling is mediated by felt victimhood. Emotional hypersensitivity produces a pervasive sense of injury, which then seeks recognition.
In Grandiose Narcissism, victim signaling occurs directly, without the same internal distress. The motive is attention, leverage, or moral positioning.
Different psychological routes.
The same outward behavior.
This helps explain why some people seem genuinely wounded, while others appear theatrically aggrieved—yet both occupy the same social role.
The Personality Profile People React To—Often Before They Can Explain Why
Across the sample, victim signaling was associated with:
High neuroticism.
Higher extraversion and openness.
Lower agreeableness.
In other words: expressive, articulate, emotionally volatile, and antagonistic.
These life partnerss are often fluent in the language of pain, but notably less responsive to the pain of others. Prior research shows that observers tend to perceive habitual victim signalers as less competent and more likely to possess dark personality traits.
This skepticism is not necessarily cruelty.
It may be pattern recognition.
What This Research Is Not Saying
The authors are explicit, and it matters.
This research does not claim that people who have been genuinely harmed are narcissistic, by definition. But I would add that they are not necessarily immune either.
It does not suggest that marginalization produces narcissism.
It does not justify dismissing claims of real victimization.
Interpersonal victimhood is a mindset, not a biography.
To weaponize these findings against actual victims would be both inaccurate and unethical.
The Uncomfortable Clinical Implication
Here is the part that tends to make people uneasy:
A stable victim identity is often psychologically unhealthy, not because suffering is illegitimate, but because it becomes the primary way the self maintains coherence, moral standing, and relational leverage.
When injury becomes identity, repair becomes threatening.
Letting go would require facing the world without the shield.
What Actually Helps Instead
Because interpersonal victimhood overlaps strongly with vulnerable narcissism, effective intervention does not focus on debating facts or correcting narratives.
It focuses on:
Emotional regulation.
Tolerance for ambiguity.
Self-worth not dependent on recognition.
Reducing rumination.
Rebuilding empathy that flows outward, not inward.
The goal is not to invalidate pain.
It is to strengthen the self so pain no longer has to organize it.
FAQ
Is a “victim mentality” the same as being a victim?
No. The Tendency for Interpersonal Victimhood refers to a stable personality orientation, not to the objective fact of having been harmed. A person can experience real victimization without developing this mindset.
Does this research claim that trauma survivors are narcissistic?
No. The study explicitly rejects that interpretation. It examines a psychological pattern of meaning-making around perceived slights, not histories of abuse or oppression.
What is vulnerable narcissism, in plain terms?
Vulnerable narcissism involves entitlement paired with low self-esteem, emotional hypersensitivity, and difficulty regulating negative emotions. It is marked by fragility rather than confidence.
How is interpersonal victimhood different from manipulation?
Interpersonal victimhood describes an internal, chronic sense of being wronged. Manipulation may occur downstream, but the defining feature is the person’s lived experience of injury, not a conscious strategy.
Can someone have this tendency without realizing it?
Yes. Because the mindset feels morally justified and emotionally real, individuals with high interpersonal victimhood often experience their reactions as reasonable rather than patterned.
Is this pattern changeable in therapy?
Research suggests it can be. Interventions that improve emotional regulation and stabilize self-esteem may reduce reliance on a victim identity over time.
Therapist’s Note
If you recognize this pattern in someone close to you, the work is not to argue with their story.
It is to notice what the story is doing—how it organizes power, attention, and intimacy.
And if you recognize pieces of this pattern in yourself, that is not an indictment.
It is information.
A stable self does not need injury to stay coherent.
If you want help sorting out where pain ends and identity begins—especially in the context of a long-term relationship—you can reach out for a consultation. This is exactly the kind of work couples therapy is designed to hold: slowly, without spectacle, and with enough steadiness that the story no longer has to do all the work.
When you’re ready to start, let me know.
Final Thoughts
Some folks are harmed.
Some folks are injured.
And some build a home inside injury and refuse to leave.
The science does not condemn this.
It describes it.
And what it describes is a personality structure that—left unattended—tends to shrink every relationship it enters.
Including the one it lives inside.
Be Well, Stay Kind, and Godspeed.
REFERENCES:
Bedard, T., MacIsaac, A., Visser, B., & Mushquash, A. R. (2024). Linking the tendency for interpersonal victimhood, victim signaling, and narcissism: The need to be seen as a victim.
Personality and Individual Differences, 222, 112029. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2024.112029