There are two types of memory frequently experienced by individuals who have had overwhelming trauma that has been suppressed psychologically or chemically. The first is general memory, experienced as an adult, in which there is...

You know something, it’s not easy to break out of your comfort zone. People will tear you down, tell you you shouldn’t have bothered in the first place. But let me tell you something, there’s...

And as she held me, I suddenly realized that my lifelong search for love and acceptance had finally ended in the arms of a foster parent.

Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty as well as by the abuses of power.

I wondered about her chicken-and-egg relationship with Dad. Which came first? Her helplessness or his controlling?

They don’t like the thought of someone else making demands on the person whom they see as belonging entirely to them.

I’ve always considered myself a good person. I’ve never done anything to purposely hurt anyone. I was in shock that this happened to me, and because it did, I turned into this vengeful person. I’ve...

The scars from mental cruelty can be as deep and long-lasting as wounds from punches or slaps but are often not asobvious. In fact, even among women who have experienced violence from a partner, half...

The central attitudes driving the Drill Sergeant are:I need to control your every move or you will do it wrong.I know the exact way that everything should be done.You shouldn’t have anyone else — or...

the gravity of wound to fist

…they needed someone to explain, to spin, the parts of the tale that couldn’t be suppressed. Someone reputable and educated. Someone brilliant yet absolutely committed to the faith. Someone like my father.

Mental anguish always results from the avoidance of legitimate suffering.

I think that is supposed to be good, that I get less from him but I feel worthless.

And could you, from a place of love, actually stand up and, use force, to give someone back, the suffering, they were trying to put on you? Would I do it? Maybe it would even...

Never let kindness be your weakness, never let your weaknesses be your downfal

Your body is a temple, not a daily dumping ground for another person’s pain, anger, betrayal, judgment, hypocrisy, denial, games, jealousy or blame. When you are being psychologically, spiritually or emotionally abused by a person,...

I was lost in a void of perpetual darkness. Disconnected from myself. Turned inside out. No sign of life. Eventually, the darkness was my light and the void a haven – a quiet place where...

It is hard to bring paedophile rings to justice. Thankfully it does happen. Perhaps the most horrific recent case came before the High Court in Edinburgh in June 2007. It involved a mother who stood...

Janna knew – Rikki knew — and I knew, too — that becoming Dr Cameron West wouldn’t make me feel a damn bit better about myself than I did about being Citizen West. Citizen West,...

Our tenderness, compassion and kindness go with sensitive generous heart that should not be abused by others.

Lyall’s face went deadpan as he relayed the details, as those who are tortured or raped will become when they retell the pattern of abuse

There seemed to be no one in a position of power, from the Vatican to Wall Street, from Parliament to Scotland Yard to Fleet Street, who could think of anything better to do than abuse...

My dad had limitations. That’s what my good-hearted mom always told us. He had limitations, but he meant no harm. It was kind of her to say, but he did do harm.

Peace Out and In

Causing any damage or harm to one party in order to help another party is not justice, and likewise, attacking all feminine conduct [in order to warn men away from individual women who are deceitful]...

That was the dirty secret associated with her past. Not that she’d been abused but that somehow she felt that she deserved it because she’d let it happen. Even now, it shamed her, and there...

The meaning of our lives is to justify where our bosses spent their budget.

By developing a contaminated, stigmatized identity, the child victim takes the evil of the abuser into herself and thereby preserves her primary attachments to her parents. Because the inner sense of badness preserves a relationship,...

There’s always something in it for the person who is allowing to be taken advantage of. – Psychotherapist David in Type 1 Sociopath

The underlying attitude comes bursting out of his words: He believes his wife is keeping something of his away from him when she doesn’t want intimate contact. He sees sexual rights to a woman as...

There certainly are some women who treat their male partners badly, berating them, calling them names, attempting to control them. The negative impact on these men’s lives can be considerable. But do we see men...

I decided I would not go to court to have my mother declared incompetent, I would not fight. I put the car in drive and hit the gas. I felt as if I’d jumped off...

Have you ever felt as if your dreams were more memorable, more alive, than what you knew to be reality? Have your dreams ever seemed so tangible as to make you question upon waking if...

The major abscess in the mind is a lack of acknowledgement of evil.

I love you, Skye. You’re in my heart, in my head, under my skin. You’re my present and my future.

Sometimes, the only way to make your dreams come true is to shatter them.

Bullies may be the perpetrators of evil, but it is the evil of passivity of all those who know what is happening and never intervene that perpetuates such abuse.

There was a moment of hesitation in which Joe looked into her eyes, and she looked back without flinching. Many a time, he had been at the same game with her, and she had always...

Learn to say to the abuser in a firm voice, “Stop it.” Do not explain yourself, your needs, or what you mean. Simply call a halt to the abuse, and let that be your final...

Allegations of abuse like this have a noxious effect and need to be confronted and contained and redressed quickly and effectively and transparently,

It amazes me when education, religion and family values fail to create a human being.

Complex Trauma” to describe the experience of multiple and/or chronic and prolonged, developmentally adverse traumatic events, most often of an interpersonal nature (e.g., sexual or physical abuse, war, community violence) and early-life onset. These exposures...

Love is a funny thing. It’s not at all what you expect it to be. But if you have to stand out on the corner to prove it, then maybe it’s better not to be...

Men with high baseline levels of testosterone marry less frequently, have more adulterous affairs, commit more spousal abuse, and divorce more often.

We certainly understand there will be tension in the plant, especially given some of the verbal abuse and threats made by picketers during the strike, … However, we’re going to do our best to peacefully...

illegitimate” sources of satisfaction: experiencing a loss of self-respect for indulging in activities contrary to personal moral standards of conduct; risking the displeasure and misunderstanding of others important to her; and opening oneself to the...

James is why I never left. I should have left.

The comment section of the internet is like gang graffiti, it makes no sense and is ugly to look at.

Vague and mysterious forms of speech, and abuse of language, have so long passed for mysteries of science; and hard or misapplied words with little or no meaning have, by prescription, such a right to...

I came to this house for safety. They came because the foster care system ran out of homes. We stayed because we were stray pieces of other puzzles, tired of never fitting.