10 Ways Blame-shifting in Relationship Harms It

However, what do you do when your partner shifts all the blame onto you while absolving themselves of everything?

Blame-shifting in relationships is a manipulation tactic designed by the abuser to victimize themselves while portraying negative situations as your fault.

“I wouldn’t have screamed at you if you weren’t nagging me.”

“I cheat on you when you are too busy working and can’t seem to find the time for me.” 

“I wouldn’t have called your mom if you weren’t such a horrible person!” 

If you often find yourself on the receiving end of such statements, you may be undergoing blame-shifting.

Let’s go over what is blaming, how blame-sitting works, why do people blame others, and how to deal with someone who blames you for everything.

What is blame-shifting in relationships?

According to Dr. Daniel G. Amen,

“People who ruin their own lives have a strong tendency to blame other people when things go wrong.”

People who use blame-shifting are often escapists who lack the emotional maturity to own up to their behavior and the resulting consequences of their actions. These people often perceive negative situations as another’s responsibility.

Blame shifters often victimize themselves.

Since blame-shifting is a form of a coping mechanism, the person shifting the blame may be doing it unconsciously and may not understand their faulty logic.

However, the individual on the receiving end of the blame games often believes such accusations are true and tries hard to work on the relationship.

Unfortunately, when dealing with projection and blame, the victims often find that they aren’t able to make things work. They often blame themselves for the failure of the relationship.

Is blame-shifting an abusive behavior?

Everyone indulges in blame-shifting now and again.

Students who score low grades in their class quiz blame it on their teacher for not liking them, or people who lose their jobs often blame their boss or colleagues.

But, how long can you go around passing the blame?

Yes, blame-shifting is a form of abusive behavior.

Being with someone who doesn’t take responsibility for their actions takes a toll on your psychological and emotional wellbeing. You often feel drained and emotionally exhausted from taking all of the blame for things you didn’t do.

This created a toxic equation between you and your partner.

Blame-shifting in relationships is also a way to manipulate you into doing something that you otherwise wouldn’t be willing to do. The abuser makes you feel like you “owe” them something.

Finally, blame-shifting is often done to create a shift in the power dynamic between you and your partner. When your partner finally convinces you that you were at fault, they tend to have more power over you. Additionally, the responsibility of fixing the relationship also falls on you.

If your partner has the habit of always blaming others, it is a red flag that you should not ignore.

Psychology behind blame-shifting- Why do we blame others?

As mentioned in the previous section, blame-shifting in relationships is something most of us are guilty of doing at one point in our lives. We may still unconsciously be doing it!

Let’s take a quick look at some psychological reasons for blaming others.

Blame-shifting can often be explained as a classic case of fundamental attribution error.

So, what does this mean?

In simple words, we often attribute someone else’s actions to their personality and character. Still, when it comes to us, we often attribute our own behaviors to external situations and factors out of our control.

For example, if your colleague is late to work, you might label them tardy or lazy. However, you’ll attribute it to the alarm clock not ringing on time if you are late to work.

There’s another reason why we shift the blame on others.

According to Psychoanalysts, our ego defends itself from anxiety by using projection–a defense mechanism wherein we take out our unacceptable feelings and qualities and blame them on other people.

So, you often find yourself blaming others for your actions.

The defense mechanism always points to a lack of insight into our feelings and motivations. Since defense mechanisms are often unconscious, a person who is projecting on you will usually not realize what they are doing.

How blame-shifting works?

Imagine this. You and your partner are coming home from a 12-hour car journey, and both of you are extremely exhausted from the drive. While your partner is behind the wheel, you’re admiring the beautiful sky.

And then, you feel a crash!

It turns out; your partner miscalculated the turn they had to take and end up hitting the car on the curb.

The rest of the week, you get to hear– “I hit the car because of you. You were distracting me.”

You feel like you’re going crazy because you were silently looking at the sky!

What to do when someone blames you for everything?

Blame-shifting in relationships is often subtle and, like all types of abuse, often starts with something small that could be your fault. It intensifies as time passes in your relationship.

The characteristic feature here is that your partner will never admit their mistakes.

Techniques used while shifting blame in relationships

There are several techniques used while blame-shifting in relationships. These include the following:

• Minimizing

In this manner, the abuser will try to invalidate your feelings, and you may feel like you’re going crazy. This is a technique of dismissal and rejection of someone’s thoughts and feelings. Psychologically, it negatively impacts the partner.

Christina and Derek were on a break, during which Derek started dating her best friend, Lauren. When Christina found out what was going on, she confronted Derek, who told her she was childish and immature. He also called her “too sensitive.” 

• The victim card

By playing the “poor me” victim card, Max was able to shift all the blame onto Joe. Playing the victim card means the person feels powerless and does not know how to be assertive, but tries to gain an advantage by cutting a sorry figure.

Joe and Max were in a relationship for three years. Joe is a lawyer at a well-reputed firm while Max is in-between jobs.

One night, Joe came home to find Max drinking whisky after five years of sobriety. Upon confronting him, Max said, “I drink because I’m alone. My wife leaves me alone at home to fend for myself because she’s too busy building her career. You’re so selfish, Joe. I have no one.” 

• The stink bomb

The go-to-hell attitude is reserved for when the abuser knows that they’ve been caught and have nowhere else to go. This clearly means that when the person has no opportunity to defend or escape, they unabashedly accept it and pretend they aren’t even at fault.

Jack caught Gina texting her ex-boyfriend and planning to meet him on the weekend. When he confronted Gina, she said, “So what? Can I not meet someone without your permission?” and “Am I your puppet? Why do you think you need to control my every move?”

Gaslighting versus blame-shifting

The term gaslighting has become mainstream, thanks to all the attention it has gotten from social media.

Gaslighting is a subtle form of emotional manipulation wherein you start doubting your sanity and perception of reality. It’s a way of insisting that something didn’t happen when it did in reality.

For example, “I didn’t call you stupid! You’re only imagining it!”

When someone is gaslighting you, they are exploiting your vulnerabilities, fears, insecurities, and neediness.

On the other hand, blame-shifting is a form of manipulation in which your partner twists things so that you end up being blamed even if you were not at fault.

Many gaslighters also use covert blaming, which is why the two are considered similar.