Emotional and Psychological Abuse

Some people use the words psychological abuse or mental abuse to mean the same thing as emotional abuse. Experts don’t always agree on the exact differences. Some say emotional abuse is the broader category, and psychological or mental abuse is one type of it. (For example, gaslighting is often called psychological or mental abuse.)

Even if there may be small differences, emotional abuse and psychological or mental abuse are very similar. In this section, we discuss them together because they often happen at the same time and are treated the same under the law.

Psychological abuse and mental abuse are different terms for the same thing. When we use the term “psychological abuse,” we mean psychological or mental abuse.