I wish for you to be well, Morgonstar. Your questions and situation are not "easy, simple" and so on. I say the aforesaid statements not with condescension, not to be cliché, not to be unhelpful and so on.

I empathize with you greatly. I am still recovering from my most recent relationship, which was of manipulation, abuse and more. Moreover, as it turned out, I was the victim. My ex girlfriend employed the "silent treatment" to me amongst other tactics of abuse and manipulation. I state the aforementioned info as an attempt to convey to you that I am just a regular person, who was also part of such abuse (that became trauma for me.) I will attempt to assist you in any capacity that I can in my post(s), but please remember that what I say is a perspective (no matter how well reasoned, insightful and so on it is or is not.)

Please understand that the "silent treatment" is abuse and manipulation. There are no "ifs" and/or "buts." Right now, you are a victim of abuse and manipulation. Please let that sink in.

Consequently, he is attempting to manipulate you (and possibly manipulating you,) whether you are conscious of it or not and/or of consciousness of the effects or not. The effects have the potential to be severe, even if you seemingly are not conscious of how the effects are affecting you. An example is that trauma (and a trauma bond) is a possibility to develop from silent treatment.

An important question is for you to ask yourself if he was manipulative and/or abusive prior to his use of the silent treatment. If so, there is more to your relationship than just the silent treatment, which needs to be addressed. If not, you ought to question to yourself what might cause him to be engaging in such tactics of manipulation and abuse. For example, is he enduring trauma, did he endure trauma earlier in his life and so on? His actions are inexcusable, but that does not entail that they are not explainable and/or something is ailing him and so on. Moreover, your relationship still seems to be a possibility to have.

Also, does he employ the silent treatment with any frequency over a period of time? Is it just lately?

Additionally, you should ask yourself if you both want and ought to be with this person, especially despite such behavior. Please attempt to exercise reason and emotion in your attempts to reply to the aforesaid question. For instance, ask yourself are you in physical, emotional and/or physical danger in staying? Are you ok with someone treating you as he is? Please do not tolerate such abuse and manipulation. If you allow him to treat you as he is, you are accepting his conditions of interaction and communication.

There are multiple options for what you could do. To start, the main two options are for you to continue or to not continue to be with him. From there, you decide if you continue in being with him, despite the silent treatment or not. Please understand that you are in control to not let him dictate to you, whether you explicitly tell and/or show that to him (e.g. tell him to stop, tell him that you will leave him) or not (e.g. just walk away without communication.) You could even counteract his silent treatment with yours, although that might result in unwanted outcomes (even so, any option you choose might result in unwanted outcomes.) (The aforesaid options are just a few and a starting point.)

As much as it may seem like he is in control, it is only the appearance of control to a degree. He is trying to appear as if he has most, if not all control and dictation in communication and interaction. Moreover, you are also in control because you (can) decide what you do (or not do) from here and how you are (are not) from here.

The responsibility rests with you as to what you choose to do (and not do) and how you choose to be (and not be.) Despite anyone else's opinion, the choice is yours.

You state that you love him and more. Thus, you might be conflicted between reason and emotion in your deciding. Please do not underestimate manipulation, abuse and/or their effects.

Again, I empathize with you immensely. It is a situation that should not be overlooked, downplayed, ignored and more.