Psychological Disorders That May Create Empathetic Deficiencies
Across a wide spectrum of severity, these disorders commonly involve reduced emotional intelligence—the diminished ability to understand, regulate, and respond appropriately to one’s own emotions and the emotions of others.
Mental disorders are widespread, not exceptional. Current estimates indicate that one in five people will experience a diagnosable mental disorder. This is not fringe pathology; it is a normal feature of human populations.
Because stigma remains common, many people use defences to minimise, deny, or rationalise their condition. Some deflect responsibility by reframing harmful behaviour as personality—dismissed casually as “just being a jerk.”
The noblest act of a person with mental illness is the effort to govern it.
Equal honour belongs to those who care for them—and to those who suffer, yet choose restraint over harm.
Psychosis refers to an abnormal condition of the mind described as involving a “loss of contact with reality”. People with psychosis are described as psychotic. People experiencing psychosis may exhibit some personality changes and thought disorder. Depending on its severity, this may be accompanied by unusual or bizarre behaviour, as well as difficulty with social interaction and impairment in carrying out daily life activities. [Wiki – Psychosis]
People suffering from psychosis of any kind can experience a noticeable lack of empathy or emotion that impacts relationships with others destructively. A person who is literally out of touch with reality may not be able to understand the feelings or experiences of others. Empathy is the capacity to view or experience the world from another person’s perspective and to relate to another person’s subjective experiences and feelings. Without an empathic connection to others, it is hard to have compassion and to relate with them respectfully.
Psychosis is involved in a wide range of actual mental health disorders.
The following is a list of mental health disorders in which the person may suffer from psychosis:
-Schizophrenia
-Schizoaffective disorder, involving symptoms of both schizophrenia and mood disorders
-Brief psychotic disorder, or acute/transient psychotic disorder
-Delusional disorder (persistent delusional disorder)
-Chronic hallucinatory psychosis
Psychotic symptoms may also be seen in:
-Schizotypal disorder
-Severe personality disorders at times of stress
-Bipolar disorder
-Post-traumatic stress disorder
-Induced delusional disorder
-Sometimes in obsessive-compulsive disorder
-Dissociative disorders
Extreme amounts of stress can cause psychotic states if not addressed.
Short-lived psychosis triggered by stress is known as brief reactive psychosis.
Normal states:
Brief hallucinations are not uncommon in people without any psychiatric disease. Causes or triggers include:
-Bereavement, in which hallucinations of a deceased loved one are common.
-Severe sleep deprivation.
-Sensory deprivation and sensory impairment.
-An extremely stressful event.
Bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of elevated mood and periods of depression. The elevated mood is significant and is known as mania or hypomania depending on the severity or whether there is psychosis. During mania an individual feels or acts abnormally happy, energetic, or irritable. They often make poorly thought out decisions with little regard to the consequences. The need for sleep is usually reduced. During periods of depression, there may be crying, poor eye contact with others, and a negative outlook on life. The risk of suicide among those with the disorder is high at greater than 6% over 20 years, while self-harm occurs in 30–40%. Other mental health issues such as anxiety disorder and substance use disorder are commonly associated. [Wiki – Bi-Polar]
Bipolar individuals have been observed to have impaired cognitive empathy and theory of mind but increased affective empathy. Despite cognitive flexibility being impaired, planning behaviour is intact. It has been suggested that dysfunctions in the prefrontal cortex could result in impaired cognitive empathy since impaired cognitive empathy has been related with neurocognitive task performance involving cognitive flexibility. [Wiki – Empathy]
Conduct disorder (CD) is a mental disorder diagnosed in childhood or adolescence that presents itself through a repetitive and persistent pattern of behaviour in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate norms are violated. These behaviours are often referred to as "antisocial behaviours." It is often seen as the precursor to antisocial personality disorder, which is per definition not diagnosed until the individual is 18 years old. [Wiki - Conduct Disorder]
Dissociative disorders (DD) are conditions that involve disruptions or breakdowns of memory, awareness, identity, or perception. People with dissociative disorders use dissociation, a defence mechanism, pathologically and involuntarily. Dissociative disorders are thought to primarily be caused by psychological trauma. [Wiki – DD]
Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman, in his book On Killing, suggests that military training artificially creates depersonalization in soldiers, suppressing empathy and making it easier for them to kill other human beings. [Wiki – Empathy]
Psychodynamic theory posits that anxiety is often the result of opposing unconscious wishes or fears that manifest via maladaptive defence mechanisms (such as suppression, repression, anticipation, regression, somatization, passive aggression, dissociation) that develop to adapt to problems with early objects (e.g., caregivers) and empathic failures in childhood. For example, persistent parental discouragement of anger may result in repression/suppression of angry feelings which manifests as gastrointestinal distress (somatization) when provoked by another while the anger remains unconscious and outside the individual's awareness. Such conflicts can be targets for successful treatment with psychodynamic therapy. While psychodynamic therapy tends to explore the underlying roots of anxiety, cognitive behavioural therapy has also been shown to be a successful treatment for anxiety by altering irrational thoughts and unwanted behaviours. [Wiki - Anxiety]
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person’s thoughts, behaviour, feelings, and sense of well-being. People with a depressed mood can feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, angry, ashamed, or restless. They may lose interest in activities that were once pleasurable, experience loss of appetite or overeating, have problems concentrating, remembering details or making decisions, experience relationship difficulties and may contemplate, attempt or commit suicide. Insomnia, excessive sleeping, fatigue, aches, pains, digestive problems, or reduced energy may also be present. [Wiki – Depression – (mood)]
Impulse control disorder (ICD) is a class of psychiatric disorders characterised by impulsivity – failure to resist a temptation, urge or impulse that may harm oneself or others. Many psychiatric disorders feature impulsivity, including substance-related disorders, attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder, antisocial personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, conduct disorder and mood disorders.
Five behavioural stages characterise impulsivity: an impulse, growing tension, pleasure on acting, relief from the urge and finally guilt (which may or may not arise). [Wiki – ICD]
Similar to an addictions disorder, the strong impulse to fulfil one’s urges can result in anti-social behaviour towards others. People with difficulty retraining their impulses may act out aggressively or behave in a reactive way to volatile or stressful.
- Autism
- Adult Autism
- Aspergers Syndrome
Empathetic deficiencies may arise due
to heightened states of arousal,
"burnout", sensory agitation.
"...findings show that children with ASD are bullied
at a very high rate, and are also often intentionally
“triggered” into meltdowns or aggressive outbursts
by ill-intentioned peers." [Autism Speaks]
Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, is a patterned use of a substance (drug) in which the user consumes the substance in amounts or with methods which are harmful to themselves or others. The drugs used are often associated with levels of intoxication that alter judgment, perception, attention and physical control, not related with medical or therapeutic effects. It is often thought that the main abused substances are illegal drugs and alcohol; however, it is becoming more common that prescription drugs and tobacco are a prevalent problem.
Substance-related disorders, including both substance dependence and substance abuse, can lead to large societal problems. It is found to be greatest in individuals ages 18–25, with a higher likelihood occurring in men compared to women, and urban residents compared to rural residents. On average, general medical facilities hold 20% of patients with substance-related disorders, possibly leading to psychiatric disorders later on. Over 50% of individuals with substance-related disorders will often have a “dual diagnosis,” where they are diagnosed with the substance abuse, as well as a psychiatric diagnosis, the most common being major depression, personality disorder, anxiety disorders, and dysthymia. [Wiki – Substance-related disorder]
Paranoid personality disorder (PPD) is a mental disorder characterised by paranoia and a pervasive, long-standing suspiciousness and generalised mistrust of others. Individuals with this personality disorder may be hypersensitive, easily feel slighted, and habitually relate to the world by vigilant scanning of the environment for clues or suggestions that may validate their fears or biases. Paranoid individuals are eager observers. They think they are in danger and look for signs and threats of that danger, potentially not appreciating other evidence.
They tend to be guarded and suspicious and have quite constricted emotional lives. Their reduced capacity for meaningful emotional involvement and the general pattern of isolated withdrawal often lend a quality of schizoid isolation to their life experience. People with this particular disorder may or may not have a tendency to bear grudges, suspiciousness, tendency to interpret others’ actions as hostile, persistent tendency to self-reference, or a tenacious sense of personal right. Patients with this disorder can also have significant comorbidity with other personality disorders. [Wiki – PPD]
Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) is defined by the DSM-5 as “a pattern of angry/irritable mood, argumentative/defiant behavior, or vindictiveness lasting at least six months as evidenced by at least four symptoms from any of the [defined] categories and exhibited during interaction with at least one individual who is not a sibling”. Unlike children with conduct disorder (CD), children with oppositional defiant disorder are not aggressive towards people or animals, do not destroy property, and do not show a pattern of theft or deceit. A diagnosis of ODD is also no longer applicable if the individual is diagnosed with Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD).
[Wiki – ODD]
A study conducted by Jean Decety and colleagues at the University of Chicago demonstrated that subjects with aggressive conduct disorder elicit atypical empathic responses to viewing others in pain. Subjects with conduct disorder were at least as responsive as controls to the pain of others, but unlike controls, subjects with conduct disorder showed strong and specific activation of the amygdala and ventral striatum (areas that enable a general arousing effect of reward), yet impaired activation of the neural regions involved in self-regulation and metacognition (including moral reasoning), in addition to diminished processing between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. [Wiki – Empathy]
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that can develop after a person is exposed to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, or other threats on a person’s life. Symptoms may include disturbing thoughts, feelings, or dreams related to the events, mental or physical distress to trauma-related cues, attempts to avoid trauma-related cues, alterations in how a person thinks and feels, and increased arousal. [Wiki- PTSD]
Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD; also known as complex trauma disorder) is a psychological disorder that can develop in response to prolonged, repeated experience of interpersonal trauma in a context in which the individual has little or no chance of escape. C-PTSD relates to the trauma model of mental disorders and is associated with chronic sexual, psychological, narcissistic (child) abuse and physical abuse or neglect, chronic intimate partner violence, victims of prolonged workplace or school bullying, victims of kidnapping and hostage situations, indentured servants, victims of slavery and human trafficking, sweatshop workers, prisoners of war, concentration camp survivors, residential school survivors, and defectors of cults or cult-like organizations. Situations involving captivity/entrapment (a situation lacking a viable escape route for the victim or a perception of such) can lead to C-PTSD-like symptoms, which can include prolonged feelings of terror, worthlessness, helplessness, and deformation of one's identity and sense of self. [Wiki - C-PTSD]
Histrionic personality disorder (HPD) is defined by the American Psychiatric Association as a personality disorder characterized by a pattern of excessive attention-seeking emotions, usually beginning in early adulthood, including inappropriately seductive behaviour and an excessive need for approval. Histrionic people are lively, dramatic, vivacious, enthusiastic, and flirtatious. HPD affects four times as many women as men. It has a prevalence of 2–3% in the general population and 10–15% in inpatient and outpatient mental health institutions.
HPD lies in the dramatic cluster of personality disorders. People with HPD have a high need for attention, make loud and inappropriate appearances, exaggerate their behaviours and emotions, and crave stimulation. They may exhibit sexually provocative behaviour, express strong emotions with an impressionistic style, and can be easily influenced by others. Associated features include egocentrism, self-indulgence, continuous longing for appreciation, and persistent manipulative behaviour to achieve their own needs. [Wiki – HPD]
Individuals with dependent personality disorder tend to feel incapable of caring for themselves. They have difficulty making decisions and assuming responsibility without relying on others for advice and reassurance. They may be reluctant to take on projects due to lack of self-confidence. In order to avoid disapproval or being left alone, they may have difficulty expressing disagreement and may subject themselves to unpleasant activities or abusive relationships. Furthermore, they may be preoccupied with unrealistic fears of being left alone, and may pursue close relationships urgently after one has ended. [The Albert Ellis Institute -- Personality Disorders]
Dependent Personality Disorder (DPD) may create empathetic deficiencies
due to dependencies that provision abuse, in order to maintain a relationship.
Antisocial personality disorder is defined by a pervasive and persistent disregard for morals, social norms, and the rights and feelings of others. Individuals with this personality disorder will typically have no compunction in exploiting others in harmful ways for their own gain or pleasure and frequently manipulate and deceive other people, achieving this through wit and a façade of superficial charm or through intimidation and violence. They may display arrogance, think lowly and negatively of others, and lack remorse for their harmful actions and have a callous attitude to those they have harmed. Irresponsibility is a core characteristic of this disorder: they can have significant difficulties in maintaining stable employment as well as fulfilling their social and financial obligations, and people with this disorder often lead exploitative, unlawful, or parasitic lifestyles. [Wiki – APD]
Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a personality disorder in which a person is excessively preoccupied with personal adequacy, power, prestige and vanity, mentally unable to see the destructive damage they are causing to themselves and others. It is a cluster B personality disorder. [Wiki – NPD]
One diagnostic criterion of narcissistic personality disorder is a lack of empathy and an unwillingness or inability to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others.
[Wiki – Empathy]
Although recent research has indicated that NPD is not necessarily characterized by a complete emotional deficit, but more so a polarization of emotion (emotionally attached v.s. emotionally detached).
Borderline personality disorder (BPD), also known as emotionally unstable personality disorder – impulsive or borderline type or emotional intensity disorder, is a personality disorder. The essential features include a pattern of impulsivity and instability of behaviours, interpersonal relationships, and self-image. There may be uncontrollable anger and depression. The pattern is present by early adulthood and occurs across a variety of situations and contexts. [Wiki – BPD]
Borderline personality disorder is characterized by extensive behavioural and interpersonal difficulties that arise from emotional and cognitive dysfunction. Dysfunctional social and interpersonal behaviour has been shown to play a crucial role in the emotionally intense way people with borderline personality disorder react. While individuals with borderline personality disorder may show their emotions too much, several authors have suggested that they might have a compromised ability to reflect upon mental states (impaired cognitive empathy), as well as an impaired theory of mind.
People with borderline personality disorder are very good at recognizing emotions in people’s faces, suggesting increased empathic capacities. It is, therefore, possible that impaired cognitive empathy (the capacity for understanding another person’s experience and perspective) may account for borderline personality disorder individuals’ tendency for interpersonal dysfunction, while “hyper-emotional empathy” may account for the emotional over-reactivity observed in these individuals. One primary study confirmed that patients with borderline personality disorder were significantly impaired in cognitive empathy, yet there was no sign of impairment in affective empathy. [Wiki – Empathy]
Schizophrenia and the other psychotic disorders are some of the most impairing forms of psychopathology, frequently associated with a profound negative effect on the individual’s educational, occupational, and social function. Sadly, these disorders often manifest right at time of the transition from adolescence to adulthood, just as young people should be evolving into independent young adults. The spectrum of psychotic disorders includes schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, delusional disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, schizophreniform disorder, brief psychotic disorder, as well as psychosis associated with substance use or medical conditions.
[NOBA – Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders]
Schizophrenia is characterized by impaired affective empathy, as well as severe cognitive and empathy impairments as measured by the Empathy Quotient (EQ). These empathy impairments are also associated with impairments in social cognitive tasks. [Wiki – Empathy]
Types of Bullies
A systematic bully is the worst kind. They pick a victim and work on them over a long period,
enjoying the power they build over them as they destroy their victim’s self-esteem.
Systematic bullies can be very subtle and sneaky and may get their dirty work done by others,
while ensuring the victim knows who is in charge and that they are powerless to do anything about it.
Not as sustained as systematic bullying, the active bully nevertheless approaches life with a ‘dog eat dog’ mentality,
where you are either a bully or a victim. If you are not superior and not a friend then you are a potential victim.
Active bullies lack the cruelty of the systematic bully, yet they still lack empathy and enjoy the sense of power
that being a ‘tough guy’ brings. They look down on weak people and consider victims as deserving all that they get.
A passive bully is one who lets others suffer, and perhaps enjoys the sense of superiority that this brings.
Active bullies often have passive bullies as gang members. They actually do relatively little, although their presence can be threatening.
Passive bullies may be potential victims themselves, but prefer to keep out of the bully’s sights.
Bullying can happen as a momentary event.
For example when a child (or adult) threatens
another in order to achieve a specific outcome.
Adults in particular may ‘unintentionally’ bully psychologically due more to a lack of consideration than deliberate action.
The victim feels bullied and dominated, yet the bully does not realize the effect they are having.
When alerted to this, they are typically surprised, but soon apologetic
(although they may still think it is a lot of fuss over nothing).
Hidden Forms Emotional & Psychological Abuse
Codes of Silence Enable Crime
Psychological and emotional abuses are widespread and hidden; however, lived exposure varies: some individuals may never encounter or recognise these behaviours, while others endure them chronically across their lifespan. Such abuse is not confined to any single environment; it is present in workplaces, educational institutions—particularly colleges and universities—and domestic settings. Its effects are consistent and well-documented: the systematic erosion of personal dignity, the depletion of psychological resilience, and the progressive impairment of the target’s well-being, while reinforcing maladaptive and pathological ego structures in the perpetrator.
A clear distinction must be maintained between substantiated abuse and fictitious attribution. The vast majority of online content described as “gangstalking” is inaccurate, misleading, or reflective of untreated paranoid ideation. Assertions involving weaponised energy beams, implants, abductions, or electronic, psychic, or remote mind control lack empirical basis and are not credible. Such claims arise either from mental disorder or from the deliberate dissemination of false narratives, both of which divert attention from genuine, commonplace, and socially embedded forms of psychological and emotional abuse.
Mobbing, as a sociological term, means bullying of an individual by a group,
in any context, such as a family, peer group, school,
workplace, neighborhood, community, or online.
When it occurs as physical and emotional abuse in the workplace, such as
"ganging up" by co-workers, subordinates or superiors, to force someone
out of the workplace through rumor, innuendo, intimidation, humiliation,
discrediting, and isolation, it is also referred to as malicious, nonsexual,
non-racial/racial, general harassment.
Victims of workplace mobbing frequently suffer from: adjustment disorders,
somatic symptoms, psychological trauma (e.g., trauma tremors or sudden onset selective mutism),
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and major depression.
In mobbing targets with PTSD, Leymann notes that the "mental effects were fully
comparable with PTSD from war or prison camp experiences." Some patients may
develop alcoholism or other substance abuse disorders. Family relationships routinely
suffer and victims sometimes display acts of aggression towards strangers in the street.
Workplace targets and witnesses may even develop brief psychotic episodes occupational
psychosis generally with paranoid symptoms. Leymann estimated that 15% of suicides
in Sweden could be directly attributed to workplace mobbing. [Wiki - Mobbing]
Although many people lower their voices in intimate or social conversation and use subtle gestures in everyday life,
intent and reception are what differentiate abusive and non-abusive communication. Unfortunately, many people who
gaslight choose to hide behind anonymity. Amplified by groups operating in a community or conducted
repetitiously by a single individual, gaslighting can have severe and damaging
effects on a person's emotional health.
Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation in which a person seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual
or in members of a targeted group, making them question their own memory, perception, and sanity. Using persistent denial,
misdirection, contradiction, and lying, gaslighting involves attempts to destabilize
the victim and delegitimize the victim's belief.
Sociopaths and narcissists frequently use gaslighting tactics to abuse and undermine their victims.
Sociopaths consistently transgress social mores, break laws and exploit others, but typically also are convincing liars,
sometimes charming ones, who consistently deny wrongdoing. [Wiki - Gaslighting]
Gaslighting takes on many forms. For all intents and purposes could be described as someone “messing" with another.
In that, the abuser is targeting someone through calculating what he or she can do (to the target) without
leaving any evidence or grounds for argument. Essentially it is a poltroonish attack -- carried out by
people affected by an emotional deficit.
Gaslighting can happen in the blink of an eye, leaving only the forethought for the target to absorb.
But as well, gaslighting can happen for many years. A target can be subject to such abuse over the
course of any type of relationship (work, home, school).
Microaggression is a term used for brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioural, or environmental indignities,
whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative prejudicial slights and insults toward any group,
particularly culturally marginalized groups. The term was coined by psychiatrist and Harvard University professor Chester M. Pierce in 1970 to describe
insults and dismissals which he regularly witnessed non-black Americans inflicting on African Americans. By the early 21st century, use of the term was applied
to the casual degradation of any socially marginalized group, including LGBT people, people living in poverty, and people that are disabled.
Psychologist Derald Wing Sue defines microaggressions as "brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to certain individuals
because of their group membership". The persons making the comments may be otherwise
well-intentioned and unaware of the potential impact of their words.
Microaggressions have been defined as brief and common daily verbal, behavioral, and environmental communications,
whether intentional or unintentional, that transmit hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to a target person because they belong to a stigmatized group.
Although these communications typically appear harmless to observers, they are considered a form of covert racism or everyday discrimination.
{Wiki - Microagression}
Grooming is a form of abuse that involves manipulating someone until they’re isolated,
dependent, and more vulnerable to exploitation.
It’s a gradual process. The abuser picks their target, build up trust, and the actual abuse,
which is usually sexual or financial, doesn’t come until much later.
It often starts with friendship. The groomer will look for ways to gain their target’s trust,
often with gifts or promises. Eventually they’ll start to ask for something in return,
and this eventually leads to abuse. Because groomers work to befriend their
victims, some organizations refer to it as “mate crime”.
[Signs of Grooming in Adults -- Ann Craft Trust]
[Safeguarding of Vulnerable Adults]
Are you worried about your safety because someone is:
- following you everywhere...
- contacting you over and over...
- watching your home or office...
- making you or your family feel threatened?
You may be experiencing criminal harassment!
It's a crime! You can get help.
(Canadian Department of Justice)
Senator Donald Oliver describes stalking as “a horrific crime that is treated far too lightly
by the police, prosecutors, lawyers and judges. Stalking is predatory in nature and
plunges the victim into a world of fear and terror. We must protect the victim and society.
A stalker’s efforts to control and intimidate often escalate into violence.”
(The Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime)
Know the signs of a stalker:
- Repeatedly call and text you, including hang-ups
- Follow you and show up wherever you are
- Send unwanted gifts, letters, cards, or e-mails
- Damage your home, car, or other property
- Monitor our phone calls, computer use, or social network account
- Hack into your social networking accounts (Facebook) or email
- Use technology, like hidden cameras or global positioning systems (GPS), to track where you go
- Drive-by or hang out at your apartment/residence hall, outside your classroom or at your work
- Threaten to hurt you, your family, friends or pets
- Find out about you by using public records or online search services, hiring private investigators, going through your garbage, or contacting your friends, classmates, family, neighbours, or co-workers
- Other actions that control or frighten you.
(University of New Hampshire - Sexual Harassment and Rape Prevention Program)
Gossip is idle talk or rumour, especially about the personal or private affairs of others;
the act of is also known as dishing or tattling. With the advent of the internet, gossip is now
widespread on an instant basis, from one place in the world to another what used to take a long time to filter through is now instant.
The term is sometimes used to specifically refer to the spreading of dirt and misinformation, as (for example)
through excited discussion of scandals. Some newspapers carry “gossip columns” which detail the social
and personal lives of celebrities or of élite members of certain communities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossip
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapevine_(gossip)
A rumour or rumour is “a tall tale of explanations of events circulating from person to person
and pertaining to an object, event, or issue”. However, a review of the research on rumour conducted
by Pendleton in 1998 found that research across sociology, psychology, and communication studies had widely
varying definitions of rumour. In the social sciences, a rumour involves some kind of a statement whose
veracity is not quickly or ever confirmed. In addition, some scholars
have identified rumour as a subset of propaganda.
Rumours are also often discussed with regard to “misinformation” and “disinformation”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumor
http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cycp-cpcj/bull-inti/index-eng.htm
Defamation—also calumny, vilification, and traducement—is the communication of a false statement that harms the reputation of an individual person, business, product, group, government, religion, or nation.
Under common law, to constitute defamation, a claim must generally be false and have been made to someone other than the person defamed. Some common law jurisdictions also distinguish between spoken defamation, called slander, and defamation in other media such as printed words or images, called libel. False light laws protect against statements which are not technically false but misleading.
"Poisoning" or "drugging" others is a popular weapon in the toolbox of any idiot.
Pretty much anything can have a toxic effect on a human.
Some things in the most minute amounts, some with "half-lives" that leave little opportunity for evidence.
Poisoning someone with a noxious substance can be conducted during the course of the following crimes:
· Sexual Assault (children/molestation)
· Workplace / Campus Abuse
· Domestic Abuse
· Elder Abuse
Criminology
Section 245 of the Criminal Code of Canada describes two offences.
- The first being where: a noxious substance is administered with the intent to endanger life or cause bodily harm.
- The second where: a noxious substance is administered with the intent to aggrieve or annoy.
The differentiating feature is the purpose for which the substance is administered.
{Administering a Noxious Substance - The Criminal Law Notebook}
Abuse may include the installation or misuse of surveillance technologies (e.g., hidden, exploited, or hacked cameras, transducers, microphones, or tracking software), intrusive monitoring of digital traffic, and the intimidation that arises when stolen information is circulated within a community. The resulting loss of privacy can itself function as a powerful psychological stressor, particularly when reinforced by stalking, rumours, or gaslighting.
Logical Fallcies
Illustration of Community Bullying
