I see this less as mindbending and more as breaking someone's spirit. The way it was done (emotion control) matters less than the fact that it was done.
As in Laura's father molded her, groomed her, raped her, dominated her, and made her his servant. When he could no long physically/magically dominate her (because of a curse) she slowly (over about 20 - 30 years) recovered. When she realised that he couldn't hurt her as he once had she was able to turn the tables on him.
In game turns, call it her buying off the extreme consequence "Daddy's subservient tool".
In her father's case, he was an arrogant sexist egomaniac. He was master of the game and no one could best him with his own powers. For one of his tools to escape control, to rise up, and for a mere female to beat him - that was a huge emotional and physiological blow.
In game turns, he refused to concede and fought to the bitter end because he couldn't accept the possibility of defeat at the hands of a mere female. Before he was taken out he took an extreme consequence of "dominated by his own slave" or "accepts that he was wrong" - something along those lines.
In short, extreme consequences are crippling. Physical ones cripple you physically while mental or social one cripple you in less visible ways.
Richard
