Emotional Blackmail

Her: “Why?” Him: “You always ask that. I've already told you.” Her: “You're avoiding.” Him: “Bullshit. Think about it.” Her: “I can tell you aren't in love with me anymore.” Him: “Can you blame me?” Her: “I feel like crying.” Him: “No, if you did you would have just done it.” Her: “Bastard” Him: “One day you'll realize that I was always there for you and you were too busy looking in the mirror to notice.” Her: “I could get a million guys right now if I wanted.” Him: “Good luck.”

Emotional blackmail is just an extension of the human tendency to project their emotions onto someone else. Naming an emotion is one thing; be it good or bad, no emotion should be stifled from existence. Expecting someone else to cater to a person's emotions is quite another thing. We hope that people close to us care about our emotions but that is often expressed as expecting them to value our emotions over their own. Emotions are irrational. They have very little to do with mind as opposed to just a physical reaction to a stimulus. When it does have to do with mind, an emotional reaction to a thought, it must be remembered that our thoughts are loosely connected to the outside world and only real in the context of our perceptions.

I read once that it is our duty to the people we love to be happy. It reads as a strange comment. My understanding is that the author, attempting to help people live happier lives, found a stance that puts the power of one's own happiness back into the individual's realm of responsibility and deters such projection. We can do our best to help the people we love to be happy but we can't do it for them.