Emotional abuse is repetitive and eventually cumulative behavior, designed to make the victim feel guilty.
It is very easy to imitate, and some victims later perpetuate the cycle with their own children. Although most victims courageously reject that response, their lives often are marked by a deep, pervasive sadness, a severely damaged self-concept, and an inability to truly engage and bond with others.
Emotionally abused children grow up with significantly altered perceptions, so that they perceive behaviors, their own and others’, through a filter of distortion. Many emotionally abused children engage in a lifelong drive for the approval of others, which they translate as “love.”
So eager are they for love — and so convinced that they don’t deserve it — that they become prime candidates for abuse within intimate relationships.
