The phrase “Domestic Violence and Coercive Behaviour” suggests reach. It implies a system that sees into ordinary rooms, private routines, quiet control. But definition limits everything. “Domestic”, in the legislation, means romantic or de facto partnership.
Violence that occurs elsewhere is renamed disagreement. Control between flatmates or colleagues is not domestic. Dependency is measured by affection.
[Read more]Conservatism, as a word, is used to describe a political position. It is also used to describe a temperament, a disposition toward the familiar, a preference for the known over the unknown that has nothing necessarily to do with any political programme.
[Read more]The word narcissist has escaped the clinic. It circulates now in ordinary conversation, in social media posts, in the accounts people give of difficult relationships and disappointing colleagues and parents who did not manage to be what their children needed.
[Read more]The language of immunity implies something prior and fixed—a pre-existing condition that protects the person from a pathogen they encounter. The immune system does not learn the pathogen during the encounter. It either has the antibody or it does not.
[Read more]A guarantee, properly understood, is a structure. It has two parts: the promise and the consequence of breaking it. The consequence is what makes the promise a guarantee rather than an expression of optimism.
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