Emotional abuse is a quiet, frequently unrecognized and therefore unnamed, form of abuse that can, nevertheless, have devastating consequences for the abused. Further, emotional abuse can lead to and often accompanies other forms of abuse.

Unfortunately, children are too often emotionally abused. These children grow to be adults who may have lasting symptoms and dysfunctions. These adults commonly do not recognize as emotional abuse the treatment they received as children. In fact, one of the common consequences of emotional abuse is a deep-seated sense of self-blame, which makes it difficult to assess what happened to them. Further complicating this ability to accurately assess what happened to them is the fact that the perpetrator of the emotional abuse often uses lies, scapegoating, and gaslighting, which blurs the lines between where the abuser stops and the abused begins.

Emotional abuse is not yet fully defined by the American Psychological Association, but there is a great deal of research being done. Rather, the APA has generally defined emotional abuse (both to adults and children) by its common behaviors. They name these as verbal abuse; intimidation and terrorization; humiliation and degradation; exploitation; harassment; rejection and withholding of affection; isolation and excessive control. But since those terms need further clarification, the following patterns (patterns being the operative word) of parental interaction with children can detail those general terms and have commonly been known as emotional abuse:

There are several ways that childhood........

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