European legal systems increasingly recognize psychological violence as a legitimate subject of legal protection.

This recognition has evolved through multiple legal and regulatory domains, including domestic violence, workplace harassment, anti-discrimination law, consumer protection, data protection, digital platform regulation and artificial intelligence governance.

Despite these developments, regulation remains fragmented. Existing legal frameworks address specific manifestations of psychological violence but lack a coherent framework capable of addressing psychological violence across interpersonal, organizational, political, commercial and digital domains – whether originating from domestic, foreign or transnational actors.

This paper argues that European law is gradually moving toward the protection of a broader legal interest: cognitive integrity, understood as the individual’s capacity for free, informed and autonomous judgment.

The next stage of legal development may involve the progressive recognition of cognitive autonomy as a protected societal value and the establishment of legal safeguards against forms of psychological violence that systematically undermine independent judgment, democratic resilience and state sovereignty.