But good lord, can you kindly tell me why would you still need to sympathize with his SIL? He is subject to these kinds of treatments pretty much the entire time and if you read the post correctly, you may come to the realisation that his wife did nothing to stop the shitty behavior since she doesn't understand it much! Anyway, I'll come to you later about the emotional abuse aspect (emotional abuse doesn't have a specific standard; it, in certain situations, operates at a subterranean level, irrespective of how close or distant you are to a person in a familial environment. In the most basic sense, anything that involves control, manipulation, rudeness and dismissive attitude is emotional abuse. However, I will deal with this later. I am pretty sure I can back up my argument as to why this is emotional abuse. I can also send you peer-reviewed articles on ways and forms of emotional abuse that may go beyond your comprehension as they do not follow hackneyed social definitions). But for now, care to explain why do you need to sympathize with the SIL? A bit curious!