Jennifer Freyd is an expert in the psychology of sexual violence. In the ‘90s, she coined the term DARVO, an acronym that describes a typical response from people accused of abuse. It stands for Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender.
Freyd offered her analysis of Depp v. Heard prior to the verdict:
There are court cases all the time like this without the fame, and it’s not in the news. There are many times we, as outside observers, cannot know what happened in the past. We just don’t have enough information to know. But we can see what’s happening right in front of us.
The most insidious part is this role reversal, where the person being held accountable or accused takes the victim’s stance and accuses the person who has raised the allegations.
Often, people say, “Why don’t you tell somebody?” Or, “Why didn’t she tell somebody?” The truth is that telling can lead to terrible things.
The only time in which telling is valuable is when there is a good response to that telling, and we live in a society where good responses are less likely than bad responses.
That vilification is almost certainly really harmful to people’s immediate feelings but also to their willingness to talk about their own experiences. Why would somebody, when they watch what happens to someone who brings this sort of difficult material up, and they see that person get treated so terribly, why would they put themselves in that position?
A negative social response can be deeply damaging. It can be more predictive of the long-term well-being of, say, a rape survivor than details of the rape itself. It’s how people respond.
It may be easier to identify with one or the other based on what you’ve experienced in the world, and the danger there is that you might miss the truth of the other person because it’s not as easy to identify with them.
For instance, it’s easier to imagine being falsely accused of something than to imagine actually being the perpetrator of the allegations.
Freyd also commented after the verdict:
What we have witnessed in the US over this case has been an overwhelming case for Depp on social media. It is like an anti-Heard campaign and there has been a lot of Darvo. […] Others who wish to make claims will see what has happened in this case, and see what has happened to Heard, and think twice. Many will be afraid to talk.
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