Discover the subtle psychological attacks that could be eroding your sense of self—and how to protect your mental health.

Behavior #3: Emotional Assassination

What it looks like: Someone consistently dismisses, minimizes, or ridicules your emotions—not just disagreeing with your feelings, but attacking your right to have them at all.

Common phrases:

• "You're overreacting"
• "It's not that serious"
• "You're too sensitive"
• "You always make everything about yourself"

These phrases don't engage with the content of your emotional experience. They attack the legitimacy of having emotions at all.

Why it's so damaging: Jung understood that emotions aren't just feelings—they're crucial information about your inner state and your relationship with the world around you. When someone consistently invalidates your emotions, they're cutting off your access to vital information about your own psychological needs.

The long-term effect: You learn that your feelings are inconvenient, inappropriate, or wrong. You become emotionally muted, a shadow of your authentic self, disconnected from the inner guidance your emotions provide.

Behavior #4: Psychological Starvation (The Silent Treatment)

What it looks like: The strategic withdrawal of attention, affection, and acknowledgment as a form of punishment and manipulation.

This isn't about taking space to process emotions or cool down from conflict. It's about using your fundamental need for connection as a tool of control. The person simply disappears emotionally, leaving you to figure out how to earn back their attention and approval.

Why it's so effective: This behavior activates our deepest fears of abandonment and rejection. The silent treatment doesn't just hurt at the moment—it echoes every early experience of being ignored, dismissed, or forgotten.

The psychological impact: You find yourself becoming increasingly desperate to understand what you did wrong. You start monitoring your behavior obsessively, trying to anticipate what might trigger another withdrawal. You become hypervigilant about others' moods while losing touch with your own needs and feelings.

Behavior #5: Weaponized Self-Sacrifice

What it looks like: Someone systematically trains you to abandon yourself in the name of love, loyalty, or moral goodness.

This behavior makes you feel guilty for having needs, setting boundaries, or prioritizing your well-being. They make maintaining limits so psychologically uncomfortable that you'll abandon them to avoid guilt and conflict.

Guilt-inducing phrases:

• "After everything I've done for you..."
• "I can't believe you're being so selfish"
• "If you cared about me, you would..."
• "I thought our relationship meant more to you than this"

The result: Jung called this "boundary erosion," where you lose the ability to distinguish between reasonable requests and manipulative demands. You begin to feel guilty for having any needs or limits at all.

Behavior #6: Psychological Objectification

What it looks like: The systematic treatment of another person as if they were an object to be used rather than a human being to be respected.

You're not seen as a complete person with your own inner life. You're viewed as a collection of functions designed to meet their needs—the emotional caretaker, the problem solver, the confidence booster, the convenient target for frustrations.

Deceptive phrases:

• "I don't know what I'd do without you"
• "You're the only one who understands me"
• "I need you so much"

These can sound like expressions of love, but when they come from someone who consistently ignores your autonomous personhood, they're declarations of ownership.

The damage: Being consistently objectified creates what Jung called "self-alienation." You start to see yourself primarily through the lens of your usefulness to others, losing connection with your authentic desires, feelings, and aspirations.

Behavior #7: Induced Psychological Death

What it looks like: The complete victory of external control over internal integrity—when someone has successfully convinced you that poor treatment is all you deserve.

By this stage, you no longer resist mistreatment because you've been convinced that resistance is futile, inappropriate, or evidence of your ingratitude. You've learned that asking for better treatment only leads to worse treatment, so you've stopped asking.

The final conquest: Jung understood that this behavior doesn't develop overnight. It's the culmination of all the previous behaviors working together over time. When they've all done their work, they become what Jung called "psychologically conquered"—someone who has given up the fight for their dignity and self-respect.

The Path to Psychological Recovery

Here's what Jung wanted you to understand above all else: The fact that you can recognize these behaviors means they haven't completely conquered you. There's still something alive in you that knows when treatment is unacceptable—some part of you that recognizes your worth and dignity.

Taking Action: What Recovery Looks Like

Jung understood that awareness without action is just another form of self-deception. Real liberation requires the courage to:

• Say no when necessary
• Set firm boundaries
• Walk away from relationships that require you to sacrifice your psychological integrity

The Price of Psychological Freedom

Recognizing these behaviors and deciding to stop tolerating them will cost you something. Some relationships will end. Some people will be angry with you. Some situations will become uncomfortable. This is the price of psychological freedom—and not everyone is willing to pay it.

Most people, even after understanding these patterns, will continue tolerating soul-destroying behaviors because change is scary, and they'd rather deal with known suffering than unknown possibilities.

Reclaiming Your Authentic Self

Jung believed that "the privilege of a lifetime is becoming who you truly are." But you can't become yourself while tolerating behaviors that systematically destroy your authentic self.

If you recognize these patterns in your life, remember: that your mental health and psychological well-being matter. You deserve relationships that support your growth, not ones that slowly erode your sense of self.

The choice is yours: Will you use this knowledge to finally protect your soul? Or will you continue to sacrifice your psychological integrity for the comfort of familiar dysfunction?

Your journey to reclaiming your authentic self starts with recognizing these behaviors—but it doesn't end there. The real work involves developing the inner strength to never allow these destructive patterns to take root in your life again.

Your soul is waiting for you to protect it. Don't keep it waiting any longer.

If you found this article helpful, share it with someone who might need to read it. Sometimes, awareness is the first step toward psychological freedom.