The Everly Brothers and later the Scottish rock band Nazareth both famously sang Love Hurts (written by Boudleaux Bryant). The reality is that love should not “hurt” in the way that far too many people experience it at the hands of someone who is using physical and psychological behaviors to control their victims who they supposedly “love.”

Literally at the outset of this year, the question of whether there ought to be a greater recognition of the consequences of non-violent behavior once again broke into international news when HuffPost headlines proclaimed on Jan. 3, 2019 that “Emotional and Psychological Abuse are now Crimes in Ireland.” Ireland’s Domestic Violence Act of 2018 (effective on Jan. 1, 2019) for the first time included “coercive control” as a form of domestic violence which is punishable by up to five years of imprisonment. See Section 39 of the Domestic Violence Act of 2018. As was noted by the HuffPost, “[t]he legislation defines coercive control as ‘psychological abuse in an intimate relationship that causes fear of violence, or serious alarm or distress that has a substantial adverse impact on a person’s day-to-day activities.’”