Psychological terror or mobbing in working life involves hostile and unethical communication which is directed in a systematic manner by one or more individuals, mainly toward one individual, who, due to mobbing, is pushed into a helpless and defenseless position and held there by means of continuing mobbing activities. These actions occur on a very frequent basis (statistical definition: at least once a week) and over a long period of time (statistical definition: at least six months´ duration). Because of the high frequency and long duration of hostile behavior, this maltreatment results in considerable mental, psychosomatic and social misery.

Thus, the definition does not focus too much on the activities themselves, but rather on the heavy mental strain. The origin of this focus on psychological situations in the workplace is found in medical stress research: The researcher attempts to reveal, when a workplace stressor is likely to injure the individual, causing him or her to go on sick leave. The empirical research on mobbing in the workplace has revealed psychosocial stressors that cause extreme impact on the health of the victim, as can be observed by studying the course-of-mobbing sequences.

The definition excludes temporary conflicts and focuses on the breaking point where the psychosocial situation begins to result in psychiatrically or psychosomatically pathological conditions. In other words, the distinction between "conflict" and "mobbing", to emphasize the concept again, does not focus on what is done or how it is done, but rather on the frequency and duration of whatever is done. This also underlines the fact that basic research carried out in Sweden (Leymann, 1990b, or 1992a, or 1992b; but also Leymann & Tallgren, 1989) has medical research concepts to lean on. Basically, it is a line of research focusing on somatic or mental stress: how intense does mobbing have to be in order to result in mental or psychosomatic illness? The research pursued has mainly focused on the mental and physical stress. The reader must keep in mind, that I do not dealprimarily with psychological behavioral research but rather with research concerning mental and psychosomatic stress of a certain type in the workplace, its results, its pathological conditions and the sick leave that it causes. The scientific definition of the term mobbing thus refers to a social interaction, through which one individual (seldom more than one) is attacked by one or more (seldom more than four) individuals on almost a daily basis and for periods of many months, forcing the person into an almost helpless position with a potentially high risk of expulsion. See also the LIPT-questionnaire (LIPT = Leymann Inventory of Psychological Terrorization) and information about the LIPT-manual.

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