Movie News

Psychologist's slams Cruise control over Katie

Thu 14 Feb 9:20 AM

A psychologist has claimed Tom Cruise shows all the signs of being in an abusive relationship with Katie Holmes.

Social psychologist and author Dr Dina McMillan used the actor as a profile for domestic violence at a police conference in Wollongong, Australia on Tuesday.

She told the Illawarra Mercury newspaper, "His behaviour towards Katie Holmes, how they got together, everything has all the indicators of an abusive relationship.

The author of But He Says He Loves Me - How To Avoid Being Trapped In a Manipulative Relationship claims that abusive partners use grooming measures to condition their victims. She cited Cruise's infamous declaration of love for Holmes by jumping up and down on a couch on the Oprah Winfrey show in 2005 as a bad sign.

She said, "This (behaviour involves) anything designed to make her like him. This is designed to make her trust him. This is designed to boost her ego. This is 'I've never felt like this before, Oprah'."

"Someone told me yesterday they're calling it 'Cruise control'. He is an exceptional case of control.

"He had been dating Katie Holmes for two months when he was on Oprah Winfrey. It made my ears perk up and gave me goosebumps. I knew Katie was in trouble.

"It's always designed with destructive behaviour, it's always designed with little snips, snaps, criticisms and instructions to destroy her confidence and her independence and weaken her will ..."

"People think, 'You have to be really dumb to get into one of these relationships', and I won't lie to you, Katie seems like a perfectly intelligent young woman."

It'll be interesting to see how long she'll be able to get away with using Cruise as a, no doubt unwilling, example of such behaviour, which even Cruise's detractors might feel is self-serving publicity seeking.