abuse

There is a lot of public attention towards sexual and physical abuse. The news are full with that, and I am confident they will be in the future. No question, public attention, public debate and transparency makes sense and may somehow eventually help to change things.

Not so well-known and spoken-about are other types of abuse, that happen too. I found this on psychcentral.com:

Verbal Abuse

Verbal abuse refers to regular and consistent belittling, name-calling, labeling, or ridicule of a person; but it may also include spoken threats. It is one of the most difficult forms of abuse to prove because it does not leave physical scars or other evidence, but it is nonetheless hurtful. Verbal abuse may occur in schools or workplaces as well as in families.

Emotional or Psychological Abuse

Emotional or psychological abuse covers a variety of behaviors that hurt or injure others even though no physical contact may be involved. In fact, emotional abuse is a stronger predictor than physical abuse of the likelihood of suicide attempts in later life. One form of emotional abuse involves the destruction of someone’s pet or valued possession in order to cause pain. Another abusive behavior is emotional blackmail, such as threatening to commit suicide unless the other person does what is wanted. Other behaviors in this category include the silent treatment, shaming or humiliating someone in front of others, or punishing them for receiving an award or honor.

Intellectual or Spiritual Abuse

Intellectual or spiritual abuse refers to such behaviors as punishing someone for having different intellectual interests or religious beliefs from others in the family, preventing them from attending worship services, ridiculing their opinions, and the like.

Those kinds of mistreatment happen in secret and leave no visible traces. Nevertheless, they are no lesser devastating. But they are not suitable to be used in shocking media reports, they do not produce hot horror stories and pictures. Nothing to stop and stare. No sales-increasing shows and spectacles. So, most victims are unheard and unseen. The dirty deeds go unknown. And without public awareness this will not change.

By the way, hindering someone from spiritual or religious activities is as bad as forcing someone to worship, attend meetings etc. In daily reality, many people are far from real respect towards the intellectual and spiritual freedom of others - often without being aware of that. Needless to say that I dislike that, isn’t it?