Dear Rob

Last week I wrote a letter to Helen. It went down quite well. I’m not sure that writing to you will be quite so popular, but I feel rather strongly that you need support. Although probably not for the reasons you think.

You seem to believe that you have been badly wronged by recent events. Life is rather grim, despite the prospect of the new job. But until you take responsibility for the pain and psychological damage you caused Jess and Helen, you will continue to hurt others and yourself.

You talk about Henry and Gideon/Jack as though they were your personal possessions. Everything you say about them is expressed in relation to how you feel. This is not how good, loving parents behave. Good parents put their children’s needs before their own. They are prepared to give up anything for their children’s sake, even if that means never seeing them again. They would give up their own lives for them if they had to. Could you do that?

Your psychological development has been badly affected by your own parents. Your father is a cruel ill-tempered man who judges others harshly and withholds love. He has abused your mother psychologically for many years. She has learned to accept his put-downs and capitulate to him, including sending you away to boarding school when you were very young. This has left you deeply scarred.

You have absorbed your father’s misogynistic attitude to women. You love your mother but treat her as a useful fool. You treat the women you have relationships with as sex objects and workhorses to be manipulated and controlled. You are ultra-competitive, deeply jealous and you struggle with controlling your temper. You have an unreasonable sense of entitlement and you perceive your own attributes and the faults in others far in excess of reality. This causes you problems in your work and personal life.

Some people would describe you as a narcissist, a person whose psychological development has been arrested in response to excessive criticism or other trauma as a child. I’m not sure if such a label is useful, unless it encourages you to seek help. What I do know is that you need help. Badly. Because your behaviour is going to get you into really serious trouble one of these days. And because although you pretend otherwise, you are very unhappy.

It won’t be easy. You are going to have to rethink everything you currently believe about yourself and others.

It is possible that you can be rehabilitated. It can happen in real life as well as in a soap. And if you and the writers of The Archers can do it, it would be a good thing. It would send a positive message that it isn’t down to the woman and the criminal justice system to combat coercive control. The only thing Helen got wrong was to be vulnerable. It was you who targeted, hoodwinked, bullied, abused and raped her. So it is you who needs to change.

There are services available to help men like you. Although not nearly enough of them. Such work takes great patience and skill and it isn’t quick. But it is essential because there are far too many men who physically and psychologically abuse the women they profess to love. A few end up in prison. The majority get away with it. And go on to ruin the lives not only of those they have already abused but also of the next women and children who are unfortunate enough to form relationships with them.

So I encourage you to seek some professional help. Here are some useful numbers and websites:

• Respect  – organisation that specialises in helping to end domestic abuse
• Respect Phoneline 0808 802 4040 – Confidential helpline for those who are worried that they are abusing a partner
• Refuge – website with information about help if you think you may be an abuser

If you can admit to what you have done, Rob, it would be a very good first step. You talk frequently about “being a man”. Facing up to being an abuser is what a real man would do. It will take considerable bravery. And it won’t be easy.

Helen showed immense courage in eventually standing up to you. Could you find courage like that to face yourself? I really hope so.

Wishing you well.

From Lisa