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In the preceding article (Twemlow, 1995), I reviewed the conceptual and metapsychological underpinnings of the relationship between victim and victimizer that are often observed clinically in cases of acute and chronic violence. Both victim and victimizer contribute to the perverse form of negative intimacy that occurs, an understanding of which permits insight rather than politics and blame to decide a course of action most useful to the people involved.
In this article, the practical details of the prototypical victim/victimizer relationships are examined with examples of commonly seen traumatic object relations configurations in clinical practice.
There are at least four basic possible Object Relations Units (ORU) in a delicate dialectical balance:
| 1. Victim | Victimizer |
| 2. Rescuer | Victim |
| 3. Martyr | Victimizer |
| 4. Detached Observer | Victimizer |