Isolation to facilitate abuse

Isolation is often used to facilitate power and control over someone for an abusive purpose. This applies in many contexts such as workplace bullying,elder abuse,domestic abuse,child abuse,cults and fundamentalist churches.

Isolation reduces the opportunity of the abused to be rescued or escape from the abuse. It also helps disorientate the abused and makes the abused more dependent on the abuser. The degree of power and control over the abused is contingent upon the degree of his or her physical or emotional isolation.

An important element of psychological control is the isolation of the victim from the outside world. Isolation includes controlling a person's social activity: who they see, who they talk to, where they go and any other method to limit their access to others. It may also include limiting what material is read. It can include insisting on knowing where they are and requiring permission for medical care. The abuser exhibits hypersensitive and reactive jealousy.

Various isolation techniques may be used by cults:

Isolation is a common element of workplace bullying. It includes including preventing access to opportunities, physical or social isolation, withholding necessary information, keeping the target out of the loop, ignoring or excluding.

Workplace isolation is a defined category in the workplace power and control wheel.

Isolation may itself be considered to be abuse or intended as punishment – see silent treatment, ostracism, social rejection, shunning, social exclusion, blacklisting, solitary confinement and sensory deprivation.

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