Why do people not take emotional abuse seriously?

People don't really know what emotional abuse is. A lot of people don't even know it exists. "You shouldn't hit your wife" is a pretty popular concept, and even abusers know it's wrong most of the time. read more

The truth is, to the person invalidating that abuse victim, that is not abuse, that’s “just being frank.” To the abuse victim who has lived with the abuse for 10 or more years, that is abuse, and it hurts. Its the primary reason why we hide. Anyway, that’s why it is so complicated. The issue of action/effect is tied into emotional abuse. read more

One worrying thing about sibling abuse is that parents might not take it seriously. Perhaps more worrying is that the inherent closeness between siblings may prevent victims of abuse from “telling on” their abusers. read more

It isn't that emotional abuse isn't taken seriously. The main difficulties are twofold -- detectability and veracity of the person. Emotional abuse is (let's put it this way) harder to detect and determine than physical abuse. read more