Implicit Emotional Exploitation from the Perspective of Filial Piety: An Autoethnographic Study of Diffuse Family Boundaries

Abstract

Under the constraints of intergenerational filial piety, the collapse of the boundaries of the family of origin can easily contribute to long-term implicit emotional exploitation. This relationship is maintained by traditional family ethical ties. It causes continuous psychological depletion and is characterized by concealment and long-term psychological damage. This study adopts an autoethnographic research method, taking the researcher’s mother’s complete life course as a single analytic case, and integrates existing empirical literature from structural family systems theory, developmental psychology, and stress physiology. It analyzes the generative logic and typical behavioral manifestations of implicit emotional exploitation in unbalanced family triangulation systems from four dimensional boundaries—physical, emotional, responsibility, and property. Furthermore, it discusses the chaotic phenomenon of pseudo-psychology that misuses psychological concepts and arbitrarily labels personalities through short videos and generative AI content, explicating the empirical research norms for personality assessment and family relationship evaluation. The study finds that long-term one-sided sacrificial discipline reshapes individual cognitive schemas. In conjunction with existing stress physiology literature, it can be deduced that sustained chronic psychological stress elevates the baseline levels of stress hormones. If an individual also has pre-existing constitutional organic health issues, the combination of the two significantly increases the risk of physical health impairment. Undifferentiated filial piety binding, double standards in the distribution of rights and responsibilities, neglect of needs and reverse moral attribution, value-detached emotional distancing, and violation of private property boundaries together constitute the complete behavioral chain of implicit emotional exploitation. Based on the three dimensions of cognition, behavior, and emotion, this study proposes practical intervention pathways for constructing family boundaries, providing theoretical references and practical plans for addressing indigenous unbalanced family relationships and intervening in intergenerational emotional trauma.