A significant minority of people in our competitive society are selfish and stealthy manipulators.
Traditional psychological therapy focuses on the neurotic, the person who suffers from a surplus of self-deprecation. Manipulators torment others with an excess of hidden aggression and the desire for control. They are often overlooked and only in recent years have the problems faced by their victims been more adequately addressed. I think the reason for the neglect of this issue is that manipulators just aren’t good customers. After all, they usually don’t seek psychological help because they think they don’t need it. The manipulator has little interest in the error in his or her ways.
In his writings and interviews, psychologist George Simon, author of In Sheep’s Clothing: Understanding and Dealing with Manipulative People, has tried to help victims of manipulation identify and understand the tactics of people who are covertly aggressive. These are people who are “at heart fighters.” Although Simon doesn’t mention it, I believe the rise of competitive careerism and sports competition among women, both of which cultivate aggression, has led to a true epidemic of female manipulators. That’s not to say men don’t use the art of tormenting others with smiles and stealth too or that female manipulators haven’t been around for thousands of years.
Many manipulators have charm and likability; they often are socially popular. They use these skills to bring others under their control. Some have an insatiable drive to dominate. They have no problem complimenting with smiles one minute and stabbing in the back the next. They have no problem praising you and then destroying your career. They have no problem using an arsenal of covert and artful tactics to get what they want or to punish those who displease them. Their consciences, at least when it comes to subtle deception and bullying, are weak. As long as their crimes are undetected, they are untroubled by them.
It can be fatal not to understand this personality type. For the innately compliant and submissive, a relationship with a manipulative person can lead to exhaustion, defeat, intense self-doubt and depression. Victims describe the effect as similar to slow poisoning by a noxious gas. They are suffocated by an invisible toxin. Arm yourself with knowledge of this poison. Otherwise, this type may unexpectedly take you off guard in the workplace, friendship, romance and family relationships. Simon writes on his blog:
There’s hidden power in manipulation tactics. That’s just one reason why the tactics are so effective. The tactics are inherently powerful persuasion tools, which is why manipulators use them. But the persuasive power behind them eludes easy detection.
Because the power behind manipulation tactics isn’t easy to see, it’s important to understand personality, character, and the ways some folks operate in this world. Once you know certain people are, and how they generally operate, it’s easier to discern what they’re probably up to when they engage in their tactics with you.
The stealthy power of manipulators often comes from their insight into the character of their victims:
Manipulators gain advantage over you by knowing what makes you tick. So, they know just what tactics to use to play on your sympathies or create doubt in you. But you gain power back when you know who they are and what they’re up to. You gain even more power by knowing what to say and do in response to their tactics. Actually, the less you say, the better. Too many folks erroneously believe what traditional psychology told them: mainly that manipulators don’t really know what they’re doing. That’s why victims often waste time and breath trying to get their abusive partners to “see” what they already see.
The key to empowerment in manipulative situations is in the doing, not the saying. Dismissing the tactics as just that: stealthy attempts to get you to cave-in or knuckle-under, and then standing firmly on principles of respectful conduct is where the power is.
The word “gaslighting” has become part of the popular lexicon. That’s because more people are the actual victims of gaslighting in their private lives and, of course, by manipulators in government and popular culture. Simon writes: Read More »