How to recognize perspecticide - a new type of psychological abuse

There are no analogues to the word "perspecticide" in the Russian language yet, even in foreign scientific articles it is rarely used. But this does not mean that this form of psychological violence has few victims. Researcher Lisa Aronson Fontes told Business Insider about the phenomenon in detail.

What is Perspecticide

A prospect is a phenomenon in which the abusive partner changes the victim's mindset. The victim no longer has an opinion, ideas, position. He sees the world as beneficial to the abuser, because it has become unsafe to realize the truth. The word itself consists of two parts: perspective (point of view) and the end of the cide, meaning murder.

In fact, perspecticide means not being able to know what you know.

Lisa Aronson Fontes

Many of the features are similar to gaslighting. In both cases, we are talking about changing reality. In the case of gaslighting, the aggressor questions the adequacy of the victim: manipulates her memories, denies facts, devalues anxieties and experiences. The victim is ashamed for what she is not to blame. The aggressor deprives of resources: money, the ability to move freely.

Gaslighting is essentially a perspecticide technique. The abuser makes the partner believe in incredible things so often that he no longer understands what is real. Sooner or later, the victim accepts the rules of the game and forgets the world in which he could make decisions. She is deprived of her own thoughts, ideas, goals, compromises her opinion, religious views and becomes a victim of perspectivism.

What victims of perspecticide face

Fontes shared the stories of survivors of perspecticide.

Ban on personal space

In one of the stories, the husband forbade his wife to have her own toothbrush. He stated that people in marriage share such things. The victim was banned from his own space. She even had to use the bathroom with the door open.

Total control

In another story, the husband slept all day, awake at night, and demanded the same from his wife. He controlled when she slept, what she eats, and hid her medications. All this made the victim physically weak. As a result, she did not even remember her age, since all aspects of her life were not controlled by her.

Mind reading

Another victim believed that her husband was reading her mind. In reality, the husband followed her through video cameras and trackers.

Another injured partner said that he had implanted a microphone in her to check what she was doing all day. He controlled her movements in other ways, but she was content with an explanation with a microphone. The woman had no versions of how he knew everything about her. Those to whom the victim told about it thought she was crazy. This, according to Fontes, isolated the victim from society even more.

In these examples, all victims are women, but men are not immune from perspecticide.

How to protect yourself from perspecticide

Perspectives are far from the first stage of emotional abuse. It manifests itself after a long-term psychological impact, when the victim is isolated from society, and his internal and external resources are depleted. Therefore, it is better to recognize the abuser before the relationship becomes serious.