Identified patient

[Tanya Shivari]

Psychology term describing an individual, usually a child or teen, in a [dysfunctional family] who:

Gets scapegoated and blamed for a familys problems
Has emotional problems that are not a mental illness, but a normal response to the stress of dealing with an unhealthy family in denial
Blows the whistle on a [dysfunctional familys] problems

Phrase originated because family [therapists] recognized that the child identified as the patient is not necessarily the one who is sick.