Everyday children are beaten, burned, slapped, whipped, thrown, shaken, kicked and raped. According to Dr. Bruce Perry, a conservative estimate of children at risk for PTSD exceeds 15 million. Physical abuse often results in violence toward others, abuse of one's own children, substance abuse, self-injurious behavior, suicide attempts, and a variety of emotional problems. Especially painful is watching violence directed towards a caregiver, leaving the child to fear losing the primary source of security in the family. Sadistic abuse - we generally think about interpersonal violence as an eruption of passions, but the severest forms are those inflicted deliberately.
Calculated cruelty can be far more terrifying than impulsive violence.
Coercive control is used in settings like concentration camps, prostitution and pornography rings, and in some families. The most personally and clinically challenging clients are those who have experienced repeated intentional violence, abuse, and neglect from childhood onward. These clients have experienced tremendous loss, the absence of control, violations of safety, and betrayal of trust. Their whole experience of identity and of the world is based upon expectations of harm and abuse. When betrayal and damage is done by a loved one who says that what he or she is doing is good and is for the child's good, the seeds of lifelong mistrust and fear are planted.