When a person cannot register their own reflection, “I caused this” is never an option. Fault lands on everyone else, and silent witnesses become the blank mirrors that sustain the cycle.

People sometimes react with unusual intensity to traits in others that they find difficult to acknowledge in themselves. That heat can feel like moral clarity, and it can also keep a feared trait from feeling like their own.

When the room answers with a diagram instead of a name, responsibility thins until no one owns it but everyone defends it.