(Untitled)

[dark_phoenix54]

Shadow Daughter: A Memoir of Estrangement, by Harriet Brown. Da Capo Press, 2018Harriet Brown admits she led a pretty good childhood; she was not physically abused (much), she had food and clothing, hers was not a broken home. But her mother was emotionally abusive, tearing Harriet down constantly. No one could praise Harriet without her mother

Comments

[rhodielady_47]

Makes you wonder what percentage of adult Americans experienced emotional abuse while they were children, doesn't it?
I've often wondered.
:^\

[virginiadear]

I'm so glad you've said out loud in print that emotional abuse IS abuse. If one is "a certain age," one recalls a point in time when as long as it wasn't physical, it wasn't abuse (and it took some physicality before that was considered abuse, too: if a kid mouthed off to one parent or the other, he or she might get a slap across the mouth from that parent, and the other parent might give him or her another once they'd heard of the 'offense;' a vigorous strapping or a paddling with something resembling a cricket bat wasn't viewed as being particularly harsh) and an emotionally absent parent wasn't recognized as abusive, either

[amethyst_witch]

Oh geez -_- Sounds like a tough but good read. I have a friend with a mother like that and it's like she's addicted to the abuse. She's 35 and still acts like she's 16 and under her mom's thumb. It's veryyyyy weird.