Definition
Infantilization is treating an adult as a dependent child — or inducing them to behave that way — so they relinquish adult judgment and autonomy. Greene describes seducers encouraging a kind of pleasurable regression: relieving a target of decisions, soothing them, making them feel cared for as a child is cared for.
In small, mutual doses this is the comfort of intimacy. Pushed further, it becomes a structure in which one person holds the adult role and the other is steadily reduced to dependence.
Why it matters
How it works
Infantilization works by making dependence pleasant. Decisions are taken over "to help," competence is gently doubted, money or logistics or social plans are managed on the other person's behalf, and the relief from responsibility is genuine. Over time, the dependent person loses practice at and confidence in adult functioning, which makes the dependence feel like fact rather than arrangement. The mechanism overlaps heavily with isolation and emotional manipulation, and like them it is reversible mainly by re-engaging adult capacity — making decisions, keeping outside ties, resisting the slide into a managed role.