How not to be a victim of psychological manipulation?
I suggest to first understand what psychological manipulation is and what are the negative consequences of this. In simple words, it is when a person is in his own interests by his actions, by words makes another person act.
Here’s a simple example. The merchant in the store offers the buyer to buy what is beneficial to the merchant. The buyer needs another product, but the seller proves the frightening arguments that the buyer wants not quality and in general the buyer will be dissatisfied if he buys what he wants. So you have to buy what the merchant offers. But this does not correspond to the desire of the buyer.
Then there is the example many face. In a relationship, one person says that he will go from another if he does not do what the first person wants. He then commits one to do something against his will.
I agree that there are many cases where manipulation is not obvious or difficult to counteract it. But usually, being subjected to psychological manipulations, people become less happy, suffer from this, they are upset. The subconscious mind is not fooled, but it will always tell the person that this action is committed against his own will through manipulation. This will be expressed primarily in the mood and in general in the psychological state of a person.
Hence, there must be cases in which one tries to manipulate and resist doing so. But how?
First you need to identify your weaknesses. Among them may be the following (from Wikipedia):
- passion for some pleasures
- the desire to assert oneself before people
- lack of self-sufficiency and independence
- low self-confidence
- naivety
- emotional dependence or vice versa fear of emotions
- excessive confidence
- greed
- impulsivity
- aged or obscure consciousness at any age
These are not the only weaknesses, there are more, but these are the main ones. Why do we need to identify such weaknesses? Because that’s what people are using, who are trying to manipulate. How to resist manipulation when you have decided on your weaknesses?
For example, a person knows that he has excessive greed. Another person fraudsters can use this, selling something too cheap in another city and demanding to make a prepayment on the card. And then there’s nothing to send. Therefore, when interacting with people, it is necessary to take into account their weaknesses and that it is possible for someone to want to take advantage of their interests.
There is still a global way that will benefit anyone – to develop their intelligence. Because consciousness and thinking ability can counteract a person’s weaknesses and prevent him from doing stupid things against logic.
But it is necessary not only to counteract, but it is desirable to be able to detect psychological manipulation. To do this, you need to ask a lot of questions to the potential manipulator in order to detect a hidden goal or motives.
And when you think or one hundred percent sure that the other person is trying to manipulate psychologically, then with such a person you need to interrupt contact, end communication and avoid such a person.
Yeah, I agree, there’s not an effective way. It all depends on the scenario of the event and on the character / intelligence of the victim. But the above principles are basic and will allow you to start changing the situation and become more protected from psychological manipulation.
