Intimate terrorism is usually a long-term pattern, and each survivor of abuse will have their own varying effects. However, many who are coerced and controlled experience similar patterns of physical, psychological, economic, and relational damage. In my work with Jenny, described in this post about physical abuse and intimidation and this post about psychological abuse, she described emerging from her controlling relationship with some painful damage. Her husband David was a classic intimate terrorist, who used not only physical violence and threat, but also psychological monitoring and undermining to get what he wanted. Although her case was severe in some ways, these aspects of coercion were typical of intimate terrorism, and left a mark on her.

One historical way of describing the psychological effects of intimate terrorism was to call it “battered women’s syndrome.” Although this term is somewhat controversial, there is still general agreement about the variety of traumatic and psychological effects that are common among survivors of coercive control, including the following:

Impaired Self Esteem. Often one’s confidence and self-concept is affected by........

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