wow
that was difficult to simply read about, i can't imagine what it was to experience, and i don't really want to. sounds terrible enough, geez.
thankfully things are not at that level in my situation and i am grateful for that. i don't think i would tell the person from my own situation that he brought me to tears... he loves to act like a predator (my theory - he's terrified of being preyed upon again). i don't want to fuel the fire any more than i may have at this point.
but it is similar with the faction thing, dissenters or a different type of in-group. ganging up and trying to tear down one's self-worth. psychological/emotional abuse is what it amounts to. i've made efforts to try and understand this person and he gets very combative (my theory - he knows i have a background in psychology and thinks i will use it to 'fix' him against his will... he has repeatedly thrown in my face the psycho-trick excuse). i'm not always acting as the daughter of two psychologists and i'm not always acting as a counselor in training. sometimes i'm just a person who wants to hang with some friends.
yeah what you described from your experience totally beats my story - not that it's a contest of course. but i do recognize it could obviously be much worse and i'm grateful to have a deeper acceptance of that after reading your post. helps me get some perspective on my own situation as well.
and probably most of the people who do this type of thing have massive amounts of pain themselves, or they wouldn't need to act in those ways. i try to keep that in mind as, not as much for pity (place of superiority) as to keep a level head for a longer amount of time (just another person).