“Tough love”

Entry in progress—B.P.
 
   
Wikipedia: Tough love
The phrase tough love is believed to have originated with Bill Milliken’s book of the same title in 1968. It is an expression used when someone treats another person harshly or sternly with the intent to help them in the long run.
   
Description
Bill Milliken described tough love through the expression, “I don’t care how this makes you feel toward me. You may hate my guts, but I love you, and I am doing this because I love you.”

Milliken strongly emphasizes that a relationship of care and love is a prerequisite of tough love, and that it requires that caregivers communicate clearly their love to the subject. Maia Szalavitz believes, based on her own experience, that this may be difficult, since some people experiencing addiction consider themselves unworthy of love and find it difficult to believe others love them.
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Tough love
Author: Bill Milliken; Char Meredith
Publisher: Old Tappan, N.J., F.H. Revell Co. [1968]
Edition/Format:   Print book : English