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> One guy, who I think was genuinely evil, took psychology as a minor subject. As an experiment, he decided to drive another, younger, vulnerable pupil mad. Gas
by bjornsing 5y ago
> One guy, who I think was genuinely evil, took psychology as a minor subject. As an experiment, he decided to drive another, younger, vulnerable pupil mad. Gaslighting him, messing with his head, that kind of stuff. And he succeeded!
I’ve seen grownups engage in this kind of abuse too. It’s incredibly disturbing, almost a legal (or very hard to prove) kind of homicide...
But what can you do about it, other than try to encourage the victim to distance themselves from the abuser? There’s a lot of room for plausible deniability, and any attempt to prove it will look a lot like the ramblings of a mad man...
- ganzuul 5y agoYou don't have to prove it but you do have to stand up for the victim. Otherwise you enable the abuse. You would be surprised how often people react positively when you stand up for someone.
- bjornsing 5y agoSure, I did, and do. But it’s a surprisingly difficult social balancing act: if you go into specifics and try to prove / point out the abuse it’s very easy for the abuser to make you too look like a rambling madman. I’m also chocked by how many do not stand up for the victim / truth, even when the abuser is clearly exposed as a lier many people (with social incentives to do so) will just say “well, I didn’t see that” or similar. A disturbing aspect of it is that I can’t tell if those people are consciously laying, or just in denial on a deeper psychological level... Scary shit.