BREAK THE [WOUNDS + UNAWARENESS] CYCLE!

I have found that there is an actual term called emotional rape... here is a good quote that describes it:

Emotional rape can be defined as: Emotional abuse characterized by patterned and purposeful behavior which purpose is to undermine and control the victim. It is an attack on the victim's personality rather than their body. The term "emotional rape" implies a horrific crime, and that is exactly what the victim is going through. In sexual rape, the term "without consent" refer to the victim having not agreed to sex. Emotional rape is the abuse of someone's higher emotions -love, self-respect- without consent. Experts agree that emotional rape is far more complex than verbal abuse. While the latter tends to be erratic and direct response to specific situations, emotional rape is, quite simply, a systematic destruction of someone's personality.

source: Cosmopolitan magazine - September 2001

the full article can be downloaded at this website
http://zeidspex.blogspot.com/2007/02/em ... is-it.html

this is very hard for me to say more about this subject, having had this happen to me for a total of 8 years... another description described a sudden reversal of awareness, when the victim finds out, that is how it was for me, 8 years I had no idea, and then suddenly!

that is the hard part about because it can happen to anybody and still one may not even know it

A vital difference between saexual rape and emotional rape is that the latter is rarely intentional. Parents don't wake up in the morning wondering "How can I destroy my child's personality today?" Childhood psychological trauma is an epidemic in our culture - and parents who abuse and neglect kids are themselves victims of the silent inherited [wounds + unawareness] cycle. Be VERY cautious about using "rape" (and other emotionally-charged words), for they promote stress, rather than reduce it. The Cosmo article makes a useful point, but HINDERS healthy awareness and healing because of its terminology.