The term DARVO has surged in online interest following a controversy involving reality television star Taylor Frankie Paul and her ex-boyfriend Dakota Mortensen. Google search interest for DARVO increased almost 10-fold since Monday, when news of a police investigation broke. The term, coined in 1997 by psychologist Jennifer J. Freyd, stands for: Deny (the abuser says the victim’s story did not happen or minimizes it), Attack (the abuser puts attention on the victim’s faults and questions their credibility), and Reverse Victim and Offender (the abuser reframes themselves as the victim and the victim as the abuser). According to Freyd’s research, a person is most likely to use DARVO after being confronted about harmful behavior, and women are more likely to be subjected to DARVO than men. Additionally, the more DARVO is used against someone, the more likely they are to blame themselves.
Context and Current Controversy
Paul was scheduled to star in ABC’s “The Bachelorette” before Disney pulled her season, referencing a resurfaced video reportedly from 2023 that shows her attacking and throwing chairs at Mortensen. Paul and Mortensen, who share a 2-year-old son, are involved in an ongoing police investigation. A Draper City Police Department spokesperson told outlets that Paul and Mortensen are linked to an open “domestic assault investigation,” with “allegations made in both directions” and contact made with involved parties on February 24 and 25. In 2023, Paul was arrested following a fight with Mortensen and charged with assault, criminal mischief, and domestic violence in the presence of a child. She reached a plea deal later that year, pleading guilty in abeyance to aggravated assault while other charges were dropped.
Understanding DARVO and Its Signs
Psychotherapist Niro Feliciano explains that DARVO is commonly enacted by people with certain personality disorders, such as narcissistic personality disorder, and represents “a defensive coping strategy.” The most important aspect to recognize is that DARVO must be a repeated pattern allowing the person to “control the narrative.” Signs include distorting reality, shifting blame to another person, making the other person feel like they’re crazy, and creating feelings of self-doubt in the victim. Feliciano cautions that when psychological terms enter pop culture, they often become misused, and defensiveness alone does not constitute DARVO. Unlike gaslighting, which refers to convincing a victim to question their own reality, DARVO is a more specific tactic of blaming the victim, denying wrongdoing, and asserting oneself as the victim.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://us.headtopics.com/news/darvo-is-trending-amid-resurfaced-taylor-frankie-paul-81256366