emotionalabuseawareness:

“In cases of emotional abuse and neglect, parents may apply either iron rules (which are hostile and uncompromising) or no rules or boundaries at all. Emotionally abused children are expected to behave well but are not provided with examples and instructions, and are given no guidance about how to behave; as they experience hostility, criticism, denigration, being ignored, and lack of sympathy from carers, their behaviour to others (e.g. their peer group) tends to lack empathy as well.”

— Dorota Iwaniec, The Emotionally Abused And Neglected Child: Chapter 10 Assessment of Emotional Abuse and Neglect (2006), p. 207. (via emotionalabuseawareness)