I was going over passive agressive treatment and found this.
Some authors stress that assertiveness is not always practiced in a balanced way, especially by those new to the process: "[One] problem with the concept of assertiveness is that it is both complex and situation-specific. ... Behaviors that are assertive in one circumstance may not be so in another".[19] More particularly, while "unassertiveness courts one set of problems, over-assertiveness creates another."[20] Assertiveness manuals recognize that "many people, when trying out assertive behaviour for the first time, find that they go too far and become aggressive.
"[21] Also, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, in the heyday of assertiveness training, sometimes so-called assertiveness training techniques were distorted, and "people were told to do some pretty obnoxious things in the name of assertiveness. Like blankly repeating some request over and over until you got your way".[22] Divorced from respect for the rights of others, so-called assertiveness techniques could be psychological tools that might be readily abused: The line between repeatedly demanding with sanctions ("broken record") versus coercive nagging, emotional blackmail, or bullying, could be a fine one, and the caricature of assertiveness training as "training in how to get your own way ... or how to become as aggressive as the next person"[23] was perpetuated.
Explains a lot.