Understanding Abuse
To Understand Abuse is to Understand Power And Control
Abuse is any attempt to gain power or control over another person using emotional, physical or sexual tactics.
- Helen Keller
The diagram you see below shows that Power and Control are at the center of an abusive relationship. Abuse is when there is a pattern of one person trying to gain power and/or control over another – trying to gain power and control over how that other person thinks, feels, acts, sees themselves and the world around them. One of the most recognizable forms of abuse is physical as physical violence may leave marks and people can more easily identify and see its impacts. Physical violence is more ‘in your face’. Physical abuse is any action that physically hurts or threatens to hurt someone, including sexual assault. There are many ways of having power and control over someone and they may be less easy to recognize as they may start out as or be more subtle. Instead of using physical abuse or sexual violence, many abusers may use verbal, financial, spiritual, psychological or emotional forms of power and control over the person. Some of these forms of power and control – abuse – are shown below.
The Power and Control Wheel
The various forms of abuse – or power and control – are covered in detail on the left-hand menu. They are abuse and often lead to physical violence.
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