There are two kinds of violence. There’s Violence with a capital V, the kind we read about in the newspapers and hear about on TV, the kind with blood and gore. And then there’s the other kind – the psychological violence that all of us carry inside us and that all of us perpetrate sometimes.

Psychological violence can’t be seen with the naked eye, and people don’t like to talk about it. But it can undermine its victim’s self-confidence, destroy happiness and, if it keeps up, lead to deep depression or even suicide. Psychological violence takes many forms, such as harassment at home or on the job, chronic lying, intimidation and neglect. But it always involves an oppressor who employs often frightfully subtle stratagems to sap a victim’s morale, the better to dominate him or her. Chronicles of Everyday Violence puts these stratagems – these psychological weapons of mass destruction – under the microscope, along with the way their victims react when trapped in this inescapable web of violence