12/08/2024
Mind Control Tactics
How do abusers exert such extreme influence over their partners’ thoughts and feelings? In workshops and support groups, abuse survivors have named the following tactics:
Isolating their victims socially
Restricting access to information
Enforcing rules with punishments for “disobedience”
Blocking their partners from making decisions about things that matter
Keeping their partners sleepy and even malnourished
Pushing their partners to consume alcohol and drugs
Drugging their partners without their knowledge, so the victim just does not “feel right” and may even lose consciousness
Exhausting them physically through forced labor in or outside the home
Humiliating and injuring them through s*x
Manipulating them through lies, the silent treatment, and gaslighting
Making their partners “crack” mentally by torturing them. For example, by denying them needed medication, forcing them to listen to two talk radio stations at once, denying them access to showers, or forcing them to harm their own child or pet.
Abusers control their partners by making them feel disoriented and afraid.