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1.26 EXPRESSIVENESS -- PSYCHOLOGY ABUSE TERMS, CONCEPTS

==== Expressiveness

MEANING: The ability to show one's feelings, to reveal one's emotions to others.

RELEVANCE TO ABUSE: Abusive relationships often prevent the abused person from being expressive; the abused person may be tightly controlled by the abuser. However, expressiveness is vital for mental health. In an abuse recovery process, the abused person needs to learn to be more expressive. This will involve negative emotions as well as positive ones. While understanding and recognizing one's anger and frustration is important, very destructive emotions such as rage and violent behavior should not be fully expressed with action. This is a delicate balance between acknowledging one's negative feelings, letting the other person know about these but not acting out those negative feelings.

PERSONAL NOTE FROM RICK DOBLE: I believe expressiveness or expression is a basic need of all humans. Lack of expression means that you are living in a cage and that life may seem meaningless. Learning to sing when you feel like singing or laugh when you feel like laughing is essential. Learning to understand anger is also important as is knowing how to keep angry actions in check. However, no one likes a person who "wears his heart his sleeve." Emotions and expression like everything else need to be kept in balance with other needs.

RELATED WORDS AND PHRASES: meaningful, significant, demonstrative

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