Lyn Cowan

On martyrs from the book Masochism

".....Martyrs tend to see their situation simply: their suffering has been unjustly imposed on them by persons and forces from the outside. This superficiality of self-pity blocks genuine compassion. Their attitude is self-righteous and self-centered. Only through heroic tolerance and false humility do they feel able to bear up under the mysteriously unfair things that keep happening."
    "Martyrs do not accept the experience of suffering. They actually avoid it by using their apparent victimization as ego ammunition. Martyrs are too proud of their suffering, too manipulative about their righteousness, to suffer humiliation. Thus martyrs are possessed by literalisms and projections. Their suffering finds its primary meaning as proof of their victimization. This is an oppresively empty view, one that lacks metaphorical resonance and a sense of intrapsychic reality."