Emotional Blackmail in Peer Relationships

Abstract

Emotional blackmail is a form of manipulation. It consists in influencing another person’s emotions and feelings, the person usually being a partner in a close relationship. This kind of blackmail is based on a threat of the blackmailer’s suffering if the partner does not behave in the way the blackmailer wishes. The basis of the manipulation is constituted by a good knowledge of the partner, his/her needs, aspirations, weaknesses and desires. The essence of the emotional blackmail syndrome is the following sequence of behaviors: the blackmailer’s demand, the victim’s resistance, the blackmailer’s pressure, the blackmailer’s threats, the victim’s compliance, and a repetition of the whole cycle. The blackmailer, in order to blur the partner’s clarity of judgment, intensifies his/her sense of obligation, guilt and fear. Many victims of emotional blackmail remain unnoticed and they suffer in secret. This may be especially difficult for children at the threshold or the start of adolescence. Here the peers’ acceptance is immensely significant and adolescents often can give a lot to gain it. In this context it is important to study the peer relationships that are burdened with emotional blackmail. The undertaken studies have a pilot character. Their aim was to explore the phenomenon of emotional blackmail in peer relationships, to make a diagnosis of its range, and of its components.