The White Knight Syndrome

Rescuing Yourself From Your Need to Rescue Others

Marilyn J Krieger Ph.D., Mary C. Lamia Ph.D.

How to Recover From a Narcissistic Parent

The effects of emotional neglect by narcissistic parents are particularly pernicious and difficult to acknowledge, let alone overcome.

Your Sense of Agency: Influencing Your Own Life and Taking Responsibility

Your ability to influence your own life and assume responsibility for your behavior are important elements in what you bring to a relationship.

Your Sense of Agency: Are You in Control of Your Life?

Your ability to take action, be effective, influence your own life, and assume responsibility for your behavior are important elements in what you bring to a relationship.

Rescuing Yourself From Rescuing Relationships (8)

Healthy self-esteem will give you the ability to be authentic, honest, and autonomous.

Rescuing Yourself From Rescuing Relationships (7)

To enjoy a healthy relationship you must aim for optimal self-esteem.

Rescuing Yourself From Rescuing Relationships (6): Understanding Self-Esteem

Rescuing Yourself From Rescuing Relationships (5): Examining Your Beliefs and Convictions

Rescuing Yourself From Rescuing Relationships (4): Reclaiming Your Projections

Rescuing Yourself From Rescuing Relationships (3): Coping with Aftereffects

Rescuing Yourself From Rescuing Relationships (2): Letting Go

You may have ended your relationship but, in your head and heart, still hear it calling to you. Letting go of a relationship filled with tension and excitement is a difficult endeavor for many reasons.

Rescuing Yourself From Rescuing Relationships (Part 1): Self-Perspective

Rapacious Partners: Who wants to be rescued? Part 4 of 4

Rescusing a rigid perfectionist means complying with her agenda. And a self-centered partner will lead you to feel vulnerable and defeated.

The Rescued: Rapacious Partners

The covertly predatory style of rapacious partners may lead you to believe that you have found paradise in their arms, but sooner or later you feel like a victim.

The Rescued (Part 2 of 4)

The Rescued

Temporary White Knights

Excitement, danger, and addictive distraction are often found in a temporary rescuing relationship.

The Balanced Rescuer

The Terrorizing/Terrified White Knight

The terrorizing/terrified white knight is the subtype most likely to have experienced overwhelming fear and shame as a child.

The Tarnished White Knight

The tarnished white knight wants to be loved and appreciated. He seeks to compensate for, and repair, the ineffectual sense of self that he developed in childhood.

The Overly Empathic White Knight

Rescuer Subtypes: The Overly Empathic White KnightAfter reviewing the commonalities and differences among rescuers, we created four subtypes - the overly empathic white knight, the tarnished white knight, the terrorizing/terrified white knight, and the balanced rescuer. These subtypes are not discrete entities but represent our observation of clusters of characteristics that can overlap. In this blog, we will focus on the overly empathic white knight. 

White Knight Commonalities

"White knights" have a compulsive need to be the rescuer in an intimate relationship. Here are more of the basic characteristics to look for.

Rescuing Yourself From Your Need to Rescue Others

Do you make excuses for your partner? Do you try to "save" people from themselves?