When abuse takes the form of insults and other disparaging words and actions. Emotional and psychological abuse can take many forms, including belittling, which can manifest as judging, humiliating, criticizing, trivializing or telling hurtful jokes.
The Danger of Belittling
And, if the belittler accuses you of being too sensitive, causing you to question your own account of what happened, this is not just belittling, but another form of emotional abuse called gaslighting.
Some common synonyms of belittle are decry, depreciate, and disparage.
Why someone might belittle another person. Here are some potential contributors to the behaviour: They are trying to make themselves feel more powerful or important by putting someone else down. They have low self-esteem and need to build themselves up by making others feel inferior.
Psychological or emotional abuse
It can involve both verbal and non-verbal abuse which can scare, humiliate and isolate a person. This may include: threats. humiliation or ridicule.
Condescension occurs when someone repeatedly makes hurtful statements that they claim are simply “jokes” or “sarcasm.” Sometimes, these “jokes” may even start out as funny but become demeaning as time goes on. Examples include statements such as, “You're always such a mess …
People with NPD may be intentionally arrogant, superior or vain. They will often act in a pretentious way in group settings, belittle others, and look to control conversations. While their self-concept is often an overinflated one, people with NPD typically have a fragile ego.
Physical violence is not the only form of domestic abuse. Emotional abuse can affect you in serious ways as well. Emotional abuse is when a partner: Verbally humiliates you.
Belittling is the intentional act of making another feel worthless, empty, and dismissed. It is one of many forms of psychological and emotional abuse. Belittling another often creates a personal emptiness and void.
to make a person or an action seem as if he, she or it is not important: Though she had spent hours fixing the computer, he belittled her efforts. Stop belittling yourself - your work is highly valued.
It could be divided into four different types: outright lying, manipulation of reality, scapegoating and coercion. Often the experience is a combination of these four types and not just limited to one of them.
What is Narcissistic Abuse? The term describes a type of emotional abuse that comes from a person with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). People with NPD have low empathy and see others as beneath them, which can lead to harmful, toxic, abusive behaviors. Narcissistic abuse can be incredibly difficult to endure.
The most significant red flag is verbal and physical abuse. Verbal and physical abuse are the biggest signs of toxicity and unhealthiness in a relationship. If someone belittles you, insults you, screams at you, pushes, or hits you—it's a sign that you should walk away from the situation entirely.
Demeaning behavior in a relationship can involve ignoring your feelings and shutting you out. When someone stonewalls you, they refuse to answer you and might even walk away in mid-conversation.
Aggression such as shouting, yelling and belittling comments are all obvious signs of condescension. However, people are sometimes condescending in more subtle ways, such as talking about people behind their backs or making fun of colleagues in the form of jokes.
A monumental weakness in the narcissist is the failure to look internally and flesh out what needs to be worked on. Then, of course, the next step is to spend time improving. The narcissist sabotages any possibility of looking deep within.
Why do people belittle others? People may put others down for a wide range of reasons. Sometimes, they could do it because they feel bad about themselves and have low self-esteem, and so they put people down to boost their own confidence. Feeling a need to do so could have many different causes.
Narcissists also gaslight or practice master manipulation, weakening and destabilizing their victims; finally, they utilize positive and negative emotions or moments to trick others. When a narcissist can't control you, they'll likely feel threatened, react with anger, and they might even start threatening you.
It comes from the Late Latin condēscendere, which means “to stoop” and derives from the Latin dēscendere, “to descend.” Condescending always involves stooping or descending to the level of those considered inferior. A person who condescends to another usually isn't outright insulting them.
As we have mentioned, a condescending person has a big ego. They think that they're better than everyone else and that they should be admired, so they'll refuse to acknowledge other people's achievements and try to downplay them. They think of themselves as smarter, more attractive or more successful than others.
People have a patronizing attitude and exhibit condescending behavior for different reasons, but usually, it boils down to insecurity and/or arrogance.