3:46pm July 18, 2014

Short version of the problem with Nonviolent Communication (NVC)

realsocialskills:

This is the short version of this post and this post:

• In a conflict, sometimes one person is right and the other person is wrong
• In such cases, it is important to judge the situation and figure out who is in the right
• Emotional abuse exists
• Working to meet an abuser’s emotional needs will not stop them from abusing others
• Genuinely felt emotions can come from an abuser’s abusive values and mentality. Expressing those feelings can be a form of abuse in itself.
• It is possible to say horrible things about and to other people under the guise of talking about your own feelings and needs
• It’s important to be able to judge abuse as abuse. Calling it “behavior that does not meet my needs” is not always sufficient.
• People need emotional boundaries. Your feelings are not always anyone’s business, and you are not always obligated to care about or listen to the feelings of others.

All of these things are vitally important to understand. People who don’t understand these things abuse their power over others. People who don’t understand these things are incredibly vulnerable to being abused by others. 

NVC culture denies all of these things. That does tremendous harm to vulnerable people.

293 notes