Let’s say you’re in a romantic relationship. You have shared a dog with your partner for five years, but the dog is technically your partner’s dog; he adopted it six months before you got together. You love this dog, and during a particularly heated argument with your significant other, he says, “If you leave me, you’ll never see the dog again.”This is just one example of emotional blackmail, which Karla Ivankovich, a clinical counselor based in Chicago, said is when “someone close to us uses the things they know about us against us as a means of harm or manipulation.” Usually, the manipulator uses fear, guilt or obligation to get what they want.
