 In some cases, those with a victim mentality have in fact been the victim of wrongdoing by others or have otherwise suffered misfortune through no fault of their own.However, such misfortune does not necessarily imply that one will respond by developing a "pervasive and universal" victim mentality where one frequently or constantly perceives oneself to be a victim.The term is also used in reference to the tendency for recognizing one's misfortunes on somebody else's misdeeds, which is also referred to as victimism.