Silent treatment
Refusal to communicate verbally with someone who desires the communication / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Silent treatment (disambiguation).
Silent treatment is the refusal to communicate verbally or electronically with someone who is trying to communicate and elicit a response. It may range from just sulking to malevolent abusive controlling behaviour. It may be a passive-aggressive form of emotional abuse in which displeasure, disapproval and contempt is exhibited through nonverbal gestures while maintaining verbal silence.[1] Clinical psychologist Harriet Braiker identifies it as a form of manipulative punishment.[2] It may be used as a form of social rejection; according to the social psychologist Kipling Williams, it is the most common form of ostracism.
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