Silent Treatment is a specific type of anger and rage that manifests in a different way. People who choose this mechanism express their anger in a very covert manner, while using logic and reasoning to portray themselves as free from fault. Instead of affection and warmth, these individuals are filled with resentment, hatred, and psychological complexes.
Silent Treatment is a specific type of anger and rage that manifests in a different way. People who choose this mechanism express their anger in a very covert manner, while using logic and reasoning to portray themselves as free from fault. Instead of affection and warmth, these individuals are filled with resentment, hatred, and psychological complexes.
Since the moment a human enters existence, two concepts—pleasure and pain—have always accompanied them. Human relationships are also based on these two concepts. The seed of a loving relationship can be planted and nurtured in childhood through proper upbringing, leading the individual in adulthood to build relationships based on meaning and pleasure. In such relationships, neither party resorts to silent treatment to achieve their goals.
However, due to incorrect parenting behavior and social and cultural conditions, the meaning and concept of relationships may not properly form in the child’s mind, and relationships might signify pain and suffering for the child. The effects of this become apparent in adulthood, trapping the person in relationships full of anger and silent treatment. It can be said that those who choose silent treatment in their relationships are internally suffering and frightened. In other words, their inner anger is a product born from the marriage of fear and pain.
Those who excessively use the silent treatment mechanism often did not experience feeling loved in childhood. In adulthood, they try to compensate for this issue through this mechanism to gain the love and attention of others. Essentially, these individuals use silent treatment as a measuring tool to gauge the amount of hurt, dependency, and affection of the other party, thus having enough reason to dominate their mind and soul and obtain the desired attention and affection.
The phenomenon of prolonged silent treatment usually occurs when one party in the relationship, who is hurt by the other’s silent treatment, seeks to fix the relationship. This teaches the person using silent treatment that the more disrespectful and negative they act, the more the other person will come toward them.
People who validate or support others’ silent treatment unknowingly encourage those individuals to become even more angry and silent.
