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Scapegoat Abuse Support and Resources: For Adult Survivors of FSA
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Systemic Scapegoat Abuse support, community, and resources for adults in the family scapegoat role – From Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA) expert Rebecca C. Mandeville, LMFT, CCTP, author of the best selling scapegoat book, ‘Rejected, Shamed, and Blamed: Help and Hope for Adults in the Family Scapegoat Role’.
Rebecca C. Mandeville, LMFT, CCTP
Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA) Education™
Understand what Happened to you In your Family – And What you’ve been trying to recover from…
Welcome to my website! The information provided below is designed to help you learn more about the insidious systemic phenomenon I named Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA) as a result of my clinical research. I don’t just research and write about being scapegoated by family – I’ve lived it. I therefore know first-hand how traumatizing this form of systemic abuse can be. But healing from FSA and its damaging effects (including complex trauma) IS possible!
In the expanding landscape of trauma recovery and mental health awareness, terms like “narcissist” and “scapegoat” have entered the mainstream lexicon. While this increased visibility is vital, it has inadvertently birthed a pervasive myth: the belief that scapegoating in families is exclusively driven by narcissistic family members. This reductionist, “Pop Psychology”-driven view of family scapegoating dynamics attracts plenty of attention, but does a profound disservice to survivors. By shifting the focus from the “villain” to the “system,” we empower survivors to stop searching for a specific diagnosis in their family members to justify their pain, and instead focus on the reality of the systemic dysfunction that shaped them.
– Rebecca C. Mandeville, LMFT, CCTP
For comprehensive information on the insidious systemic phenomenon I named ‘Family Scapegoating Abuse‘ (FSA), please carefully review this page; read my bestselling introductory book on FSA (Rejected, Shamed, and Blamed); and check out my Healing the Scapegoat Wound E-Publication (with private Community features).
Scroll Down to Take the FSA Self-Test; View A Summary of My FSA Research; And Learn More About My FSA Survivor Online Community and Other FSA Recovery Offerings
ATTENTION – PERMISSIONS REQUIRED
The term ‘Family Scapegoating Abuse’ (FSA) as well as the unique nomenclature I created to describe FSA processes represents findings from my original Family Systems research (this now includes peer-reviewed quantitative research) and is copyrighted. All of my FSA-related content on this website (and elsewhere) is also protected by copyright. If you plan to create commercial or non-commercial content (articles, podcasts, books, videos, etc.) that references Family Scapegoating Abuse and/or FSA and/or my FSA research and related material, you must email me to request permission to use my copyrighted work (this includes translations of my content).
An FSA research summary can be found near the bottom of this page. I do not typically grant interviews or participate in online summits or podcasts outside of clinical or academic settings. If you have an interview request or presentation proposal, please first familiarize yourself with my work by reading my introductory book on Family Scapegoating Abuse, Rejected, Shamed, and Blamed.
Rebecca C. Mandeville is a licensed clinician and world-renowned expert on the ‘invisible’ systemic phenomenon she named Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA). Her pioneering research on systemically-driven scapegoat abuse in families revealed that FSA (which is typically intergenerational in regard to its scope and impact) can lead to a range of issues, including Complex PTSD, Attachment Trauma, Betrayal Trauma, Impostor Syndrome, and Toxic Shame.
In addition to continuing to research on FSA (which now includes peer-reviewed, published quantitative research), Rebecca devotes much of her time to raising global awareness about FSA and its devastating impact on child victims and adult survivors via her articles, videos, and Livestream events.
Research summary included near the bottom of this page.
Help Raise Awareness About FSA
Scapegoating occurs when one family member is unjustly blamed, criticized, or targeted for negative treatment by other family members. The consequences of systemic scapegoating abuse can be severe and may lead to emotional, psychological, and relational difficulties for the targeted family member. You can help me in my mission to raise global awareness about the insidious reality of Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA) by sharing this website with others.
Begin Your Healing Today
My FSA Offerings
Private Community | 1:1 online Consultation | My Book on FSA
Our Community
Subscribe to my Substack to receive my public articles on FSA. Upgrade your subscription to join our private community.
Consultation Service
Feeling stuck in your FSA recovery? You may benefit from a Single-Session Consultation to discuss your family situation.
Intro’ to FSA
My bestselling self-help book, Rejected, Shamed, and Blamed, will help you understand what happened to you in your family.
FSA Self-Test
It is a myth that scapegoating in families is always overt and obvious. My original research on Family Scapegoating abuse (FSA) revealed it is typically systemic, insidious and subtle. To make matters even more challenging, children in families that scapegoat are often conditioned to tolerate this form of ‘invisible’ (psycho-emotional) abuse, making FSA an extremely difficult form of systemic maltreatment for adult survivors to recognize and recover from.
How It Started…
“I never could have imagined that when I published my introductory book on Family Scapegoating Abuse that it would resonate with tens of thousands of people around the world. Over the years, I’ve received countless emails and messages thanking me for providing a means of discussing this form of insidious systemic abuse via the unique terms and nomenclature I created during the course of my original FSA research. I hope that you also feel validated and seen via this first book on FSA.”
Rebecca C. Mandeville, LMFT, CCTP
Haven’t yet read Rejected, Shamed, and Blamed? This Universal Book Link (UBL) will lead you to an online store where you can purchase it securely. Only Amazon carries the paperback and hard cover versions. Note: Tantor Media distributes the audio version through Amazon and other online shops: https://books2read.com/intro2fsa
JOIN OUR COMMUNITY
Healing the Scapegoat Wound on Substack
Subscribing to my Substack is free. You’ll receive an online FSA Education Guide in your ‘Welcome’ email when you subscribe, which provides more FSA recovery resources. My latest articles will be delivered to your inbox.
Upgrade your subscription to access our private, paywall-protected community spaces.
Dearest Rebecca, Your work has been a life-saver for me and has changed everything in positive ways after a lifetime of FSA, for which I never had a name until I found you with your wonderful research, website, videos, book and our precious community which provides healing support from and for survivors like me. Knowing I can come to this community when things seem bleak has added a layer of peace that has made it much more possible for me to function in my daily life. Hearing about your own personal struggles with FSA has also provided a new way of healing where there is no one-up, one-down dynamic as I’ve experienced in the past with well-intentioned therapists. Your humanity, as you create, offer and share these groundbreaking truths, and your transpersonal viewpoint has bolstered my faith in life, in goodness, and in my own capacity to overcome adversity. Well done dear sister. Thank you! – Healing the Scapegoat Wound Paid Community Member
Summary of Research- Rebecca C. Mandeville, LMFT
Summary of Qualitative and Quantitative Research on Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA)
The term Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA) was coined by psychotherapist and clinical researcher Rebecca C. Mandeville. Mandeville’s work is foundational to the field, and she has collaborated with other researchers to study this insidious systemic phenomenon. Her recent peer-reviewed quantitative studies serve to further legitimatize the devastating reality of FSA and recovery challenges survivors face.
Key researchers and their contributions
Rebecca C. Mandeville
As the central figure in FSA research, Mandeville’s work includes:
- Creating and defining the term ‘Family Scapegoating Abuse’ (FSA): This has provided a crucial framework for understanding the systemic psycho-emotional abuse that occurs when a dysfunctional family unfairly targets one member with blame and criticism.
- Qualitative research: Through her clinical practice and studies, she identified that FSA often leads to Complex Trauma (C-PTSD), Betrayal Trauma, Complicated Grief; Anxiety Disorders; Depressive Disorders; Impostor Syndrome; and Toxic Shame.
- Quantitative research: In 2024, she co-authored the first peer-reviewed quantitative study on FSA, with another study planned for 2025.
- Authoring content: Mandeville wrote Rejected, Shamed, and Blamed: Help and Hope for Adults in the Family Scapegoat Role, which details her findings and provides resources for survivors. She also publishes new articles about FSA regularly on her Healing the Scapegoat Wound Substack and is a licensed Healthcare Partner on YouTube via her Beyond Family Scapegoating Abuse channel.
- A Unique Nomenclature: Other terms coined by Mandeville as a result of her original FSA research that enhance survivor and clinician discussions include ‘family scapegoat trauma’; ‘scapegoat narrative’; ‘righteous rage’; and ‘scapegoat grief’.
Key findings from the research of Rebecca C. Mandeville
- Complex trauma and other effects of FSA: Mandeville’s research revealed that many FSA survivors suffer from complex trauma; betrayal trauma; attachment trauma; anxiety; depression; and toxic shame. As such, FSA results in a variety of psycho-emotional symptoms and social impediments, including feeling that the world is an unsafe place, emotional dysregulation, a sense of not belonging anywhere, and difficulty forming healthy, secure relationships.
- Systemic dynamics: The research reveals that scapegoating is a systemic issue often fueled by intergenerational trauma, projection, and the splitting of family roles, where one child is designated as the “scapegoat”.
- Clinical consequences: Survivors often report a long history of seeking treatment for various diagnoses like depression, anxiety, or personality disorders without the root cause of the scapegoating being identified.
- Impact on relationships: FSA can lead to a distorted relationship with oneself and others, self-doubt, difficulty expressing emotions, and a tendency to engage in “fawning” or people-pleasing behaviors due to the betrayal trauma and toxic shame experienced within their family-of-origin.
Dr. Kartheek R. Balapala
Co-authored quantitative studies: As a research fellow and MD, Dr. Balapala co-authored the first peer-reviewed quantitative study on FSA with clinician and Family Systems researcher Rebecca C. Mandeville in 2024. This study was published in the European Journal of Public Health Studies. Mandy Sizalobuhle Mpofu, Research Scholar, also co-authored this study.
*Read our first FSA quantitative study at https://oapub.org/hlt/index.php/EJPHS/article/view/202/202
*Read our second FSA quantitative study at https://oapub.org/hlt/index.php/EJPHS/article/view/232/232
Upcoming research: Dr. Kartheek R. Balapala also collaborated on a second quantitative study with Family Systems and Scapegoat Abuse expert Rebecca C. Mandeville and Research Scholar Dr Suriyakala Perumal Chandran, which focused on how Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA) affects women with Postpartum depression (PPD). This study is now complete and is expected to be published in peer-reviewed health and medical journals in both Europe and Asia in late 2025. Check back soon for links to the published studies.
Transcend the Damaging Scapegoat Narrative
Start your FSA healing journey today
It is never too late to begin recovering from Family Scapegoating Abuse. Reclaim your story – reclaim your life!
Rebecca C. Mandeville
“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. This is because the headwind provides the necessary airflow over the wings to generate lift. Recovering from Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA) is difficult, to be sure, but with time, patience, and consistent effort, trust that you will eventually soar…”
Find Me on Social Media
My YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@beyondfamilyscapegoatingabuse