The Silent Treatment Supposedly because of something you did, the manipulator refuses to communicate with you and uses emotional or physical withdrawal as punishment. This is commonly called the silent treatment, stonewalling or withholding. It conveys contempt and communicates that you are not worth the manipulator’s acknowledgement of your existence, let alone his or her time, love, attention or consideration, according to Steve Becker, LCSW. He writes, “The silencer's aim is, above all, to silence communication. More specifically, it is to render the other invisible and, in so doing, induce
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