Emotional manipulation occurs when a manipulative person seeks power over someone else and employs dishonest or exploitive strategies to gain it. Unlike people in healthy relationships, which demonstrate reciprocity and cooperation, an emotional manipulator looks to use, control, or even victimize someone else.
What personality disorder is a master manipulator?
Borderline Personality Disorder.
Characterized by a fragile, fluctuating self-image and a profound fear of abandonment, borderlines can be master manipulators. Their controlling behaviors may range from subtle and ingratiating to threatening and violent.
The manipulator may feel stress and anxiety from having to constantly “cover” themselves, for fear of being found out and exposed. The manipulator may experience quiet but persistent moral crises and ethical conflicts, and may have a difficult time living with themselves.
"If you have voiced a concern but still feel frustrated, anxious, and pacified, you [may] have been emotionally manipulated," says Porche. "If you feel one way and someone is trying to convince you to feel another way, you are [likely] being emotionally manipulated.
People who have a submissive or dependent personality. The more emotionally dependent a person is, the more vulnerable they are to being exploited and manipulated.
Manipulative tendencies can surface in any relationship. Knowing what to look for can help you avoid them. ... While manipulative tendencies are often subtle and sometimes undetectable, there are four stages of manipulation.
Manipulators may bombard their victims with lies. When they're caught, they may deny the lie or cover it up with another falsehood. Hyperbole and generalization. It's difficult to respond to an allegation of “never” being loving or “never” working hard.
One of the most common ways of characterizing patients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder is that they are manipulative. Clinical usage of the term varies widely but clearly carries a pejorative meaning.
In some cases, ignoring a manipulator may cause them to lose interest in their target. Since manipulators typically seek control and validation, a lack of response might make them feel insignificant and prompt them to move on to someone more susceptible to their tactics.
Below are five steps to help you win with manipulators.
Be aware and notice how you are feeling. Unless what's happening is entirely subconscious, interpersonal manipulation by others generally feels uncomfortable. ...
When people pretend to ask a question when they are actually making a statement, it is manipulative. For example, “I'm sure you agree?” This is not a trust-building question. It is a statement disguised as a question. Others who hear you say this will realize you have no interest in what they think.
Manipulative movements such as throwing, catching, kicking, trapping, striking, volleying, bouncing, and ball rolling are considered to be fundamental manipulative skills.
