Common Methods of Psychological Manipulation
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The antithesis of psychological manipulation is sincere communication among individuals. Naturally, the psychological manipulator aims to change the victim’s behavior to serve his personal interests. He begins by casting doubt on the victim’s mental soundness, intentionally influencing him to make it easier to later exploit, blackmail, or destroy his life.
Among the common methods of psychological manipulation in today’s deceptive world, and how to resist them, we mention the following:
- Common methods of psychological manipulation: Manipulating the victim’s mind by casting doubt on his memory, with the intent of affecting his mental stability and opening psychological vulnerabilities that the manipulator can exploit to impose control and direct the victim’s behaviors. “Love bombing,” which refers to sudden affection toward the victim, aimed at making him abandon his usual caution and behavioral reserve. Falsely accusing the victim of committing the same behavioral disasters and sins that the manipulator himself committed, and deceptively making him feel guilty for distorted behaviors that the manipulator himself perpetrated.
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Introducing a third party between the manipulator and the victim, with the intent of increasing psychological pressure and making the victim later feel that he is the guilty party rather than the one wronged. Fabricating a false environment of near-permanent psychological tension around the victim to confuse his thinking and prevent him from thinking and acting calmly and rationally. Slandering him behind his back, especially to those whom the manipulator believes love or care for the victim, in order to isolate him socially and familially, making it easier to exploit him, damage his reputation, or break him psychologically, familially, and socially.
Punitive silence toward the victim. The worst objective of psychological manipulation is to make a person susceptible to intellectual and psychological decay, and spiritual surrender.
- Resisting psychological manipulation: Completely cutting off ties with anyone who practices one or more methods of psychological manipulation. Working to increase self-confidence and self-esteem. Learning critical thinking skills and self-control. Acquiring effective social skills. Learning physiognomy and body language. Strengthening the ability to withstand psychological pressures. Reciting the following Prophetic supplication: “O Allah, I ask You for well-being in this world and the Hereafter. O Allah, I ask You for pardon and well-being in my religion, my worldly affairs, my family, and my wealth. O Allah, conceal my faults and calm my fears. O Allah, protect me from before me, from behind me, from my right, from my left, and from above me. And I seek refuge in Your Majesty from being assassinated from beneath me.”
A Kuwaiti writer
