Unfortunately, emotional neglect falls in the gap between emotional abuse and neglect, that's certainly the case here in the UK. Coming from a social work background, neglect, sexual abuse and physical abuse are comparatively easy to spot and resolve than emotional abuse. For many of the reasons that you've outlined.

When emotional abuse does make its way into child protection matters, it tends to be for overt and unnecessarily harsh criticism of a child, or persistent bullying and/or immediate obvious signs of rejection. Even so, emotional abuse (unless severe) is difficult to both prosecute and to track. When you add in the fact that many children behave 'like perfect children' the whole thing gets a lot more complicated. These children often don't come to the fore - I can spot it a mile off, many workers can, there's simply no remedy in law. And that sucks.

It's a balancing act, parents are legally allowed to bring up their children as they say fit, providing they aren't causing overt damage or abuse. Emotional neglect is arguably a form of parenting practised by the English upper class where children are a status symbol, a tick on a life checklist and that's why we have a lot of very chaotic upper class adults running around.

Break the cycle. That's the best thing for everyone to do. Great article - and glad to have read it. :o)