Psychiatrist Richard Friedman, MD, writing about on self-defeating behavior in the NYT, confronts a client with a long pattern of not-so-coincidental-seeming disappointments:
“Do you ever wonder why so many disappointing things happen to you?” I asked. “Is it just chance, or might you have something to do with it?”
His reply was a resentful question: “You think it’s all my fault, don’t you?”
Now I got it. He was about to turn our first meeting into yet another encounter in which he was mistreated. It seemed he rarely missed an opportunity to feel wronged.