Citation

Tschui M. Femina 1997; 2: 23-25.

Vernacular Title

Les manipulateurs.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, Elea Ciencia Editorial)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

12159225

Abstract

During their long careers of counseling couples, Giovanna Stoll and Maurice Hurni have encountered couples in which psychological violence is exercised. Their book, ¿The Hate of Love, the Oddness of the Place,¿ explores strategies used in couples by one or both partners to subjugate the other and to be victorious in an ongoing struggle between the two. Two case examples are presented. Confronted with such deliberate meanness, health professionals long ago adopted a neutral stance on such behavior in an attempt to maintain professional distance from their clients. However, Stoll and Hurni abandoned their neutrality in the face of certain particularly brutal behaviors. The author describes Stoll and Hurni¿s professional experiences and the children of manipulative parents. The employer who pits his employees against each other is also discussed. Such manipulators are unable to have true friends, just as they are unable to live within loving, communicative relationships. They behave in calculated fashion, having only relationships which they deem to be useful and opportune. Respect, the capacity to give and receive, and empathy are alien notions to those who manipulate others. 40% of 1500 women aged 20-60 years old interviewed in a study of violence within the family report having been subjected to psychological violence during their married lives. 14% of these women report being either often or always sad. Women risk being denigrated, humiliated, harassed, controlled, and deprived.

Language: fr