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--- abuse [2024/12/11 21:26] – ultracomfy
+++ abuse [2026/01/13 09:09] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1
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-<fs x-large>Abuse</fs> is the treatment of things, alive or inanimate, outside of their respective normal use cases that is likely to result in significant damage to that or another object or individual. General wear and tear does not pass the "significant" [[qualifier]] and usually occurs normally even inside of the person's or object's normal use case. Abuse does not necessitate intent((In terms of interpersonal relations, abuse is always defined with involving intent. Or is it? What about a depressed mother neglecting her children? The intent question in the word "abuse" can vary widely between specific examples.)) nor does it require any damage to actually occur, but if an intent to harm is present this can be the basis for a legal case against the abuser.((Although of course the absence of action to prevent harm from coming someone's way can be good enough as well.)) From an ethics standpoint, abuse should always be avoided where there are better alternatives. In ethics, we will primarily care about //patterns of abuse//. Everyone may be abusive to someone at some point in their life and humans are good at shrugging off individual blows, but real damage will usually occur if the abuse occurs in a pattern, ie. it happens repeatedly.((This is not to say, of course, that no one individual event isn't able to traumatize or significantly damage a person or object, but in every day life such events are rare and massively dwarfed by the sustained, every-day abuse we go through.))\\
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+~~Title:Abuse~~
+<WRAP centeralign>Psychology/\\
+<fs xx-large>Abuse</fs></WRAP>
+Abuse is the treatment of things, alive or inanimate, outside of their respective normal use cases that is likely to result in significant damage to that or another object or individual. General wear and tear does not pass the "significant" [[qualifier]] and usually occurs normally even inside of the person's or object's normal use case. Abuse does not necessitate intent((In terms of interpersonal relations, abuse is always defined with involving intent. Or is it? What about a depressed mother neglecting her children? The intent question in the word "abuse" can vary widely between specific examples.)) nor does it require any damage to actually occur, but if an intent to harm is present this can be the basis for a legal case against the abuser.((Although of course the absence of action to prevent harm from coming someone's way can be good enough as well.)) From an ethics standpoint, abuse should always be avoided where there are better alternatives. In ethics, we will primarily care about //patterns of abuse//. Everyone may be abusive to someone at some point in their life and humans are good at shrugging off individual blows, but real damage will usually occur if the abuse occurs in a pattern, ie. it happens repeatedly.((This is not to say, of course, that no one individual event isn't able to traumatize or significantly damage a person or object, but in every day life such events are rare and massively dwarfed by the sustained, every-day abuse we go through.))\\
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 Abuse comes in many flavors, but the most prominent are //emotional//, //physical// (which is an extension of the first one) and then types I will dub "secondary abuse types" because they generally are things that cause harm either emotionally or physically and only differ in their expression, such as //sexual// and //neglect//.
-====== Abuse vectors - About emotional and physical abuse ======
+====== Emotional and Physical abuse ======
 The most subtle, often overlooked but - in my opinion - the most important factor of abuse happens mentally, emotionally. Humans exist in their respective brains and their lives are primarily determined by the things they //feel//. How we feel about ourselves and our life depends on how we feel, and if we are made to feel bad then we feel bad. This may appear silly at first, but is actually a very important and central point to keep in mind when looking at abuse. Any kind of hurt is essentially a feeling, even just physical hurt is just a feeling in our bodies, so if we can avoid being hurt then this involves our emotions and our feelings in general. Whether something hurts us depends on our brains and can be altered. Painkillers for example might lessen or completely remove pain. Pain, hurt and suffering are all things that happen in our brains, and physical pain is no different in our brain from emotional pain. Physical and emotional suffering are both essentially "just" signals in our brains.\\
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 ====== Sexual Abuse ======
 //See the main article on this topic: [[Rape]]//\\
-Sexual abuse like sexual assault or [[Rape]] is the act of likely inflicting suffering by means significantly involving sexual aspects. Sexual abuse is one of the strongest ways to hurt people by virtue of being extremely personal, extremely intimate, disempowering and, well, making one feel "weak". I have not been sexually assaulted and cannot do the severity of this kind of abuse justice with just my words, for which I am sorry. By everything I have heard, sexual abuse happens not //primarily// because of sexual attraction, it's a method to control and harm the victim, to really hurt them mentally, scar them for life, make someone feel more powerless than a gun to the head ever could((This "primarily" here is important, I am not going to deny that there aren't cases where it is primarily sexual attraction, or that most sexual abuse offenses do not involve at least a degree of sexual attraction as a causal factor.)). This is something repeated across domains, for example manifesting itself as systemic [[misogyny]], disempowering women and making them powerless against a male offender in the courts of law, or out on the roads, or in career prospects, or in how women are paid, or in marital laws generally designed to keep women dependent on their husbands, turning wives into childbearers and -carers, et cetera((See [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od1X6AEN7j8|"Der allerletzte Safe Space für Männer in Deutschland: Die Ehe | ZDF Magazin Royale"]].)).
+Sexual abuse like sexual assault or [[Rape]] is the act of likely inflicting suffering by means significantly involving sexual aspects. Sexual abuse is one of the strongest ways to hurt people, by virtue of being extremely personal, extremely intimate and disempowering. I have not been sexually assaulted and cannot do the severity of this kind of abuse justice with just my words, for which I am sorry.
+By everything I have heard, sexual abuse happens not //primarily// because of sexual attraction - it's a method to control and harm the victim, to really hurt them mentally, scar them for life, make someone feel more powerless than a gun to the head ever could((This "primarily" here is important, I am not going to deny that there aren't cases where it is primarily sexual attraction, or that most sexual abuse offenses do not involve at least a degree of sexual attraction as a causal factor.)). This is something repeated across domains, for example manifesting itself as systemic [[misogyny]], disempowering women and making them powerless against a male offender in the courts of law, or out on the roads, or in career prospects, or in how women are paid, or in marital laws generally designed to keep women dependent on their husbands, turning wives into childbearers and -carers, et cetera((See [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od1X6AEN7j8|"Der allerletzte Safe Space für Männer in Deutschland: Die Ehe | ZDF Magazin Royale"]].)).