The problem of classifying the manifestations of psychological violence

The article develops a classification of manifestations of psychological violence. The study problematizes the current state of the classification of psychological violence, discusses the terminology and the attributes of violent activity, suggests a model of the psychological violence process, considers empirical prerequisites for the classification, and formulates the main «axes» describing various forms of psychological violence. Psychological violence is seen as a communicative process or activity in which the communicator implements the following tasks in a variety of ways: a) delivery of a destructive message that violates the psychological conditions for the realization of subjective functions; b) neutralization of «noises», i.e., increasing the receiver’s receptivity to these messages and to controlling other sources of information. Based on the theoretical analysis of the literature and on empirical material (description of specific forms of psychological violence presented in 49 relevant publications), two main «axes» have been formed that describe the forms of psychological violence. One «axis» groups the forms of violence according to a specific method of delivering destructive content to the object of violence, the other one represents the structural complexity of this form, its place in the structure of violent activity. The main results are as follows: description of the variety of actions carried out by a subject of violence as a means of implementing communicative tasks; identification of deprivation as a type of psychological violence, along with its «direct» and «indirect» versions; conclusion about the minimal unit of analysis of violent activity as an action with a corresponding intention. These results can serve as a basis for developing a methodology for identification and assessment of the impact of psychological violence as well as can be used in research questionnaires.