[orthodoc]

Sure. That's the problem with emotional/mental/psychological abuse. It's subjective. What might unhinge one person could slide right off another person's back. It's too slippery to define; we can all say 'I know it when I see it', but if someone else's experience doesn't match our perception we just don't see it.

I don't see courts ever stepping in in a meaningful way, except in cases where the abuse is egregious and everybody 'sees' it, or where it's an adjunct to physical abuse. That's the damnable thing about it - it'd be SO much easier if the guy just hauled off and decked you.

Bottom line, it's a form of cruelty, and courts don't deal with that very well. Because individual reactions differ so much, it isn't easy to categorize; the PTSD is real but it isn't visible like the PTSD that POWs suffer. I don't see a solution.