Mobbing: Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace
by Noa Davenport, Ruth D. Schwartz, Gail Pursell Elliott
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Book Summary Information
Author: Gail Pursell Elliott, Noa Davenport, Ruth D. SchwartzEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1999-07
ISBN: 0967180309
Number of pages: 216
Publisher: Civil Society Pub
Book Reviews of Mobbing: Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace
Book Review: psychological harassment and community mobbing (organized harassment & emotional abuse)
Summary: 5 Stars
The following review is my August 2010 updated version:
Before my experience of becoming a victim of "mobbing", I had never heard of this word. I've had to deal with a bully or two in the past, and the usual work pressures. In fact, even the few bullies I had to deal with were probably rather mild compared to bullies a lot of other people have had to deal with. But nothing prepared me for the experience of being mobbed. This experience has really changed my view of people. Of course, I could tell some of the participants would have caused me grief whether or not the mobbing environment existed. And it was easy to see that others were less enthusiastic about the mobbing and just did it to "fit in". Since managers were involved in my situation, the only recourse I had was to quit for the sake of my health. This book is written very clearly and will help you understand your situation, and the best way to respond.
But immediately after quitting, I then became a victim of "community mobbing" which is also called "gang stalking". This has many similarities to workplace mobbing, but takes place in the "community". I first encountered the word "gang stalking" during my research on "mobbing", and it sounded quite preposterous to be honest. Perhaps because the descriptions I read sounded like actions of a small group of malicious people rather than a systematic tool of government persecution. In any case, now that it is happening to me, I'm finding that it isn't such a new phenomenon either. An example in some ways similar to community mobbing is the FBI's COINTELPRO. I keep asking myself "Why Me"? Its not like I'm a radical or a leader of any group? Apparently, it isn't just high profile people who are on their persecution radar. Yet, that was the case during COINTELPRO, where FBI intelligence operating Above the Law violated the rights of innocent citizens. For further info, read Book 2 and Book 3 of the 1976 committee reports whose chair was Senator Frank Church.
In my particular situation, I think "community mobbing" is a better term to use than "gang stalking" since the word "gang" implies more overt forms of violence and intimidation by a smaller group of people that are acquainted with one another (probably from similar socio-economic backgrounds), and operate independent of the government. My experience is that mobbers are probably from a broad range of backgrounds. Most likely, the community mobbing structure is very compartmentalized, so they probably don't know many of the other participants. Also, the word "community mobbing" is a better term since it implies repetitive abuse in more subtle forms of communication as the method of creating a hostile environment.
With workplace mobbing, I was afraid of losing a source of income & diminished health. With community mobbing, I'm subjected to numerous daily harassments and hostile communications making me afraid for my future safety. I've received threats of being subjected to bodily harm outside of the legal system, threats of being framed for crimes, and imprisonment. The persecution by the Federal government and its extra legal mobbers leaves no hope for justice, This is the context for the daily torments & harassments. As in workplace mobbing, one main reason it is hard to respond to community mobbing is due to the attack on the victim's social relations. I'm not sure what motivations (mix of threats & rewards?) they use to achieve this, but they obviously want to isolate the victim. It would be hard to argue that the US government does not have the know-how, does not have the money, or is too ultra scrupulous to carry out such activities.
The acts of harassment let the victim know they are vulnerable, under surveillance, and symbolize all of the previous threats to maintain a climate of fear and uncertainty. This is definitely a strategy for long-term persecution. The main principle of communication using this community mobbing strategy is the violation of the law of averages. By doing some action enough times repetitively beyond what would normally occur randomly, the victim will interpret that action/behavior/object as hostile. A neutral observer would not recognize the action as hostile, because they haven't been subjected to this repetitive treatment. The daily harassment events would probably number several thousand over a year's time. However, there's really no way to count since they deliberately blur the line between ordinary and mobbing acts, which is meant to produce an involuntary emotional response in the victim to all such stimuli. However, I've the last several months overall seem to have less harassment activity than the previous two years. The vast majority of these actions do not require any emotional involvement with the victim, so that probably makes it easier to get people to participate in these mobbing activities. It's not like they are asking them to physically harm people, so maybe it seems like they are engaging in a rather harmless activity? And perhaps, some may not even be aware that they are being used for non-verbal hostile communication. It should be stressed that more obvious forms of harassment (including direct verbal threats) were used back on the first couple days of the community mobbing experience, otherwise the victim would not feel targeted or recognize the more subtle forms of harassment which followed later. As the weeks progressed, additional stimuli were introduced. The following are some of the behaviors used, although there are probably unlimited ways of creating street theater scenarios.
* Having people ask you for money or directions at least once (usually multiple times a day) on a daily basis regardless of where you go, for a period of several weeks. This is vastly increased compared to the victim's normal experience, of perhaps being asked once a month or so.
* Hearing "directed conversations" (which repeat certain threatening themes, or relate to something personal in your life) at a restaurant or while walking. Or "Too Much Information" type conversations.
* Street theater (behavior acted out for the "benefit" of the victim)
* Automobiles used as a medium for non-verbal communication. First, using vehicles with out of state license plates from distant locations, especially those states that it's unusual to see even once per year. Then, using non-taxi automobiles with relatively rare colors such as yellow or bright lime green (I think the eye is most sensitive to these colors). And how many people drive around at night during the winter with a single functioning headlight? It's totally out of proportion to what you would expect given what percentage of cars have these attributes. It didn't matter where I drove, how short of a distance I drove, or what time of day or night I drove. To emphasize the violation of the law of averages, these types of vehicles would appear soon after leaving the residence.
Of course, mobbers who are involved with attacking a person's social relations must fully realize what they are doing, just as mobbers in a work-setting do. There are probably a smaller number of people who are coordinating all of these mobbers that are on the "front lines" (who need only contribute a minimum amount of time and effort). Why would the government go to all of this trouble with our tax dollars? To quell dissent? Provoke citizens into making reports that are easy to ridicule, in order to discredit them?
This has been going on for many months and I feel mobbing victims would be the most likely to understand or at least listen since the goals and methods are similar in many way. To Discredit & Destroy people in a way that leaves little evidence of the crime, and to provoke and blame the victim. And both workplace and community mobbing and are repetitive types of abuse that occur over a long period of time, so that the victim is always worried about "what will happen next?" Sustained psychological harassment induces a state of "hyper-vigilance", but sometimes this emotional state is incorrectly labeled as "paranoia". Mobbing can't be captured on just a few minutes of a video since it is a repetitive abuse. A single street theater incident certainly might look odd, but an observer would probably need the victim to point out most mobbing actions unless they knew what to look for. Also, the timing of the mobbing actions is also important since they quite often occur literally within a few minutes of leaving the home. This is another way of emphasizing that these are not random events, and a way to set the tone for the day.
The Patriot Act may have created opportunity for abuse of power and high technology, but community mobbing is a monstrous violation of basic human rights (not to mention the law) and could never be excused by the Patriot Act. Improved and less expensive wireless communication technologies would probably allow more efficiency on the part of the mobbers than what could have been done a few decades ago. Although I haven't yet been subjected to voice to skull audio transmissions that some people have reported, some things that I have experienced can only be explained by technologies that were probably developed by the military or intelligence agencies. See "Opening Pandora's Box" by Kingsley Dennis of Lancaster University. Another paper is "The Mind Has No Firewall" by Timothy Thomas of the US Army War College. Its probably only a matter of time before efforts are made to pass laws preventing abuse of these technologies, once enough people become aware of what capabilities exist. Of course, existing laws ought to be enough to protect citizens against community mobbing, so the problem is the people who are Above the Law with respect to these actions. So although there's no way to stop development of these technologies that take advantage of the fact that the mind has no firewall (for military or intelligence purposes), there's no excuse for abusing citizens. Of course, COINTELPRO is an example of people in the executive branch of government ignoring the Law in order to target innocent citizens.
There's no way for a victim to challenge government actions legally if actions are carried out covertly. Its depressing when so many people gang up on you (and our tax dollars finance violations of human rights and the law), but I think the bright spot to remember is that these liars and cowards are forced to carry out their activities covertly, since most Americans would be outraged if the true facts were ever revealed. There's absolutely no excuse for any of these types of mobbing.
P.S. The following review of the book "Stalking the Soul: Emotional Abuse & the Erosion of Identity" is interesting. Marie-France Hirigoyen's research helped establish the anti-mobbing laws in France.
"Often, emotional abuse builds over a long period of time until it becomes so unbearable that victims lash out in frustration and anger, only to appear unstable and aggressive themselves. This, according to Hirigoyen, is the intent of many abusers: to systematically "destabilize" and confuse their victims (with irrational, threatening behavior that preys on the victim's fears and self-doubts), to isolate and control them and ultimately to destroy their identity."
THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Summary of Mobbing: Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace
Everyday capable, hardworking, committed employees suffer emotional abuse at their workplace. Some flee from jobs they love, forced out by mean-spirited co-workers, subordinates or superiors -- often with the tacit approval of higher management.The authors, Dr. Noa Davenport, Ruth Distler Schwartz, and Gail Pursell Elliott have written a book for every employee and manager in America. The book deals with what has become a household word in Europe: Mobbing.
Mobbing is a "ganging up" by several individuals, to force someone out of the workplace through rumor, innuendo, intimidation, discrediting, and particularly, humiliation. Mobbing is a serious form of nonsexual, nonracial harassment. It has been legally described as status-blind harassment.
Mobbing affects the mental and physical health of victims. It extracts staggering costs from victims, their families, and from organizations.
With this new book, Mobbing: Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace, there is a name for the problem and help for the victims. The book helps readers to understand what mobbing is, why it occurs, how it affects a victim and organizations, and what people can so. The authors have interviewed victims from across the U.S. and the book contains many quotes that poignantly illustrate the gravity of the mobbing experience. An overview of the literature and research is provided as well as many practical strategies to help the victims, managers, healthcare and legal professionals. Original drawings by Sabra Vidali express the depth of the experience and enhance the authors' work.
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