Thank you Monte for posting this.
As a survivor of emotional neglect/abandonment plus more overt forms of abuse, I can say there are places in me the emotional deprivation has caused more damage than direct abuse. So for those of you who might feel guilty, confused or ashamed, neglect IS a really big deal and the ramifications are just as damaging, if not more so in some capacities, as overt abuse.

Secondly as this is the science forum, I am in the process of writing up a thesis paper for my psych degree which is on childhood emotional invalidation and eating disorders. And from the results I've pulled out, traumatic interpersonal encounters of a more subtle nature were prevalent across all the eating disorder groups (binge eating, bulimia, restrictive anorexia and anorexia/bulimia). I guess it shows that this stuff is serious and does lead to legitimate problems in later life.