The Trap of Reactive Abuse: When Victims Become Perpetrators in the Eyes of Others September 20, 2025
Posted by Chris Mark in Uncategorized.Tags: abuse, Chris Mark, gaslighting, male domestic abuse, Mental Health, psychology, reactive abuse, relationships, trauma
add a comment
What is Reactive Abuse?
“Reactive abuse occurs when someone who has been abused begins to defend themselves by responding to abuse with physical and/or verbal attacks, says Alexa Connors, LMSW, a senior therapist at The Dorm, which offers intensive trauma therapy for young adults.”
“Baiting and Harvesting Cycle
Reactive abuse rarely occurs spontaneously but is often the result of deliberate provocation designed to elicit exactly this response. Skilled emotional abusers understand their victims’ triggers and systematically exploit them until the victim “breaks” in ways that can be documented and used against them (Durvasula, 2019; Simon, 2010).
This process, sometimes called “baiting and harvesting,” involves several calculated steps:
Strategic provocation: The abuser identifies the victim’s vulnerabilities, perhaps their love for their children, professional pride, or core values—and systematically attacks these areas. For male victims, this often involves sustained attacks on their masculinity, competence, or worth as partners or fathers (Morgan & Wells, 2016).
Escalation timing: Provocations are often timed to maximize their impact and the likelihood of an explosive response. Research by Bates (2020) found that abusers frequently escalated attacks when their male partners were already stressed from work, health issues, or other life pressures, making emotional regulation more difficult.
Documentation preparation: Many abusers ensure they have witnesses present or recording devices ready when they push their victims to the breaking point. Studies by McCarrick and colleagues (2016) documented cases where female abusers recorded their male partners’ angry responses while carefully editing out their own provocative behavior.
Narrative construction: Once the reactive abuse occurs, it becomes the central focus of the abuser’s story. The months or years of systematic mistreatment that led to the reaction are minimized or omitted entirely, creating a narrative where the victim appears to be the primary aggressor (Cook, 2009).”
If you are someone you know is in an abusive relationship, get help. They can be insidious and you may not realize until you are out. I didn’t.
President Trump and the Goldwater Rule February 15, 2024
Posted by Chris Mark in Uncategorized.Tags: Article 25, Dr. Lee, Goldwater, Hillary, Javits, Mental Health, Rule, Trump
4 comments
Originally posted in 2018 but, given the current events, I have updated with a podcast to discuss Goldwater and Biden…
On December 8th, 2017 the President opened the doors to allow press to watch the bipartisan discussion over immigration. Dr. Brandy Lee of the Yale School of Medicine conducted apparently watched the testimony and conducted an interview in which the resulting article was titled “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump” . In this gripping article, the esteemed Dr. Lee (notice I use the honorific while she excludes such courtesy when talking about the President of the United States). In her interview Dr. Lee sounds alarm bells about President Trump’s mental fitness to be president, etc. etc.
In fact, Dr. Lee was invited to “brief” members of congress on December 5th and 6th. The group included “at least 1 Republican who they would not name.” No doubt.
This is on course with the current Democratic position of applying the 25th Amendment to remove the President from Office. As one example, in May 2017, the NY Times (surprise) wrote an article extoling the virtues of leveraging the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from office (and not doubt try to replace with Hilary).
In May 2017, the same Dr. Lee was commented in an article on Liberal Outpost (no kidding) titled: “Yale Psychiatrist says Trump (again..no honorific) has a grave ________disability”. Interestingly (to those of us who care about the rule of law and actual process) the article begins with the following:
“Psychiatrists in the United States are blocked from commenting on the psychological wellness of politicians due to the 50 year old Goldwater Rule, which states that they cannot openly diagnose the mental health of public figures who they have not personally examined.
However, the case of President Donald Trump is so extreme and potentially consequential that some noted psychiatrists have felt compelled to speak out despite the rule.”
Then, in an admitted violation of the Goldwater Rule, Lee (honorific removed) states definitively:
“This situation has come to such a critical level. In fact, a state of emergency exists and we could no longer hold back. We have an obligation to speak about Donald Trump’s mental health issues because many lives and our survival as a species may be at stake.”
So what is the Goldwater Rule? For a short history, (thank you Wikipedia) Barry Goldwater was running for President in 1964 when a magazine named Fact published an article The issue arose in 1964 when Fact published the article “The Unconscious of a Conservative: A Special Issue on the Mind of Barry Goldwater”.[3][5] The magazine polled psychiatrists about U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater and whether he was fit to be president.[6][7] The editor, Ralph Ginzburg, was sued for libel in Goldwater v. Ginzburg where Goldwater won $75,000 (approximately $592,000 today) in damages.[3]
Does this sound familiar? There are experts trying to “diagnose” a sitting president for no other reason than their adorned queen did no win and ascend to the presidency. This is nonsense. Now…the “argument” by those on the left are that the Dr. is not making a “diagnosis” under the DSM rather is simply expressing an opinion that any citizen can express. Let me ask you. If I said someone was crazy would you give it the same weight as a professor of Psychiatry from Yale with a DM and who has briefed congress? Of course not. This is nonsense and we all know it.
I will be at the Javits center next week. (where Hillary was to have her coronation…sorry…her “acceptance speech”)…I will look up at the large glass ceiling and thank God (yes GOD) that it was not Hillary that broke that ceiling.
“Dr” Heal Thyself or at least go…..”something” thyself.
Global Security, Privacy, & Risk Management 