Dark Psychology and Gaslighting Manipulation: Influence Human Behavior with Mind Control Techniques: How to Camouflage, Attack and Defend Yourself by Ryan Mace

This book is about Dark Psychology.

"Dark psychology uses communication techniques like manipulation and persuasion to help you achieve your goals".

Inspite of its scary name, "Dark psychology is not something inherently evil". Dark psychology can be used for good or bad.

"All great leaders rely on tactics of persuasion, influence, and mind control to varying degrees. The difference lies in either using it for good or for bad".

Recognizing Dark Psychology is very important as others use it all the time. Knowledge of Dark psychology will help you defend yourself against these manipulation techniques being used for evil ends.

"Dark psychology is used for many purposes. This can mean getting someone to purchase a product, convincing an audience to cast a vote in your favor, winning a tough case through mind control, or cracking a tough interview. It can also mean convincing someone to commit a crime, brainwashing people into accepting you as their God, and hurting anyone with the power of your words alone".

"Hitler’s brutal hunting of the Jews was legitimate to him, and strangely enough, to millions of other people who fell under the spell of his powers of brainwashing and gaslighting".

Dark Psychology is about behavior of people; and environment(situations, conditions).

"violence originate from a dispositional context (in other words, the innate sadistic personalities of the prison guards) or a situational context (occurring due to the constant exposure to a prison environment)".

Why care about Dark Psychology?

"Human beings naturally veer towards trying to understand what is going on in the minds of those they are engaging with. While mind control isn’t something that’s necessarily viewed in a good light, I’d say that most of the bad reputation it’s received is because people who have employed it have intended to cause harm'".

"Mind reading and mind control may sound bad, but they aren't, given that your intention lies in self-preservation without emotionally destroying others. Just like manipulative tactics are not good or bad, neither of these are.

Mind reading is the ability to figure out what someone is thinking and feeling on a deep level.

Mind control isn't just about being able to read someone's thoughts; it's also about changing what's in their head".

"People who gain the ability to read minds also display greater attention and more skill in stressful social situations. They don’t get carried away by a tirade of irrelevant emotions, and always delve into the larger context of things before forming any opinions".

"When you understand dark psychology, you learn to control or restrain harmful traits from emerging, while also knowing that you can employ it for useful purposes".

Dark psychology has been with us for thousands of years. However, it is being more intensely used now as we live in dense cities, in a consumer culture with more narcissism.

In the old days, practitioners of dark psychology might have limited audience. Globalization, inter-connected world, and technology such as newspapers, electronic and social media make it possible for extremely narcissistic people to become popular and gain power by using technology to amplify dark psychology.

We are being constantly bombarded with Dark Psychology by businesses looking to sell products, dark patterns in websites and products, realtors looking to sell houses, social media influencers peddling their nothingness, government bureaucrats being economical with the truth, and smiling politicians charming us to our doom.

Monster Study

Monster Study was a psychological experiment conducted in 1939 in University of Iowa in USA.

"The core of the experiment lay in dividing the orphan children into two groups. While the first group received positive speech therapy that exhorted and praised the fluency of their speech; the other half was exposed to negative speech therapy. The latter group was constantly berated and belittled for imperfections in speech".

"the children that the ones who received negative speech therapy developed lasting psychological issues, with some retaining speech problems for the entirety of their remaining lives".

"Academics for these manipulated children began to suffer. Among them, one of the boys flat-out refused to recite in class. Another began correcting everything he said. He told Tudor he kept stopping because he knew he’d mess up the words even before he said them".

"It was called 'Monster Study' because of the horror it instilled in some of Johnson’s peers as to how he could manipulate and mentally abuse orphan children all for the purpose of a hypothesis".

"In 2001, the University of Iowa publicly apologized for the Monster Study".

Mary Tudor was the Graduate student conducting the experiment who knew what was being done. "The acerbity of the experiment was such that Mary Tudor couldn’t escape unscathed either. She returned to the orphanage multiple times after the experiment was over with the intent of providing follow-up care. She tried to make amends...".

"The sad thing is—the world will always have people who will want to use their powers of manipulation and persuasion to make you feel inferior or to convince you to do their bidding".

Power

"What is it about power that makes it so slippery, yet so so desirable? No matter what we say or feel about it being unnecessary, all of us desire it to a certain extent, whether it lies in having a say with one person who we love or want to be with, or a whole audience, or an entire country".

Not all power is bad.

Author describes different types of power depending on its source. Power can be "legitimate power as the head of an organization or a team leader. There is also 'expert' power which comes from being the most adept at something in a situation" e.g. being a doctor or pilot or a guide or lead engineer or chief architect.
The most dangerous power is "referential power which is gained via inherent charisma, status, fame, and the mere magnetism of presence. This last kind is the one you need to watch out for the most".

Political leaders and democratic leaders have lot of this as leading general masses requires mob leaders who can manipulate the masses by violence and emotions.

So do cults, Venture Capital startups, celebrities, media personalities, leaders in monopoly businesses, oligarchies etc.

Prisoners and guards

Author talks of an experiment to determine cause of brutality in prisons.

"did this violence[brutality] originate from a dispositional context (in other words, the innate sadistic personalities of the prison guards) or a situational context (occurring due to the constant exposure to a prison environment)".

The experiment was conducted with people who were physically and mentally stable.

"The goal of the Zimbardo Prison Experiment was to prove how readily people conform to social roles that they are manipulated into believing as 'necessary' or 'essential' or simply 'the current state of affairs'. There is also an element of stereotyping here, where those uplifted to positions of coercion display the kind of aggression that they wouldn't dream of under normal circumstances".

"None of the guards had innately sadistic tendencies. It was the environment and the roles—in other words, the situational context of their manipulative positions, that brought out a kind of bestiality from within their core. And this is dangerous because we see it happening every day".

Dark psychology

"First, it is universal. Every human being possesses an innate possibility for resorting to dark psychology traits like manipulation, and every human being can be violent and predatory if they face situations that are too testing or take them to a point where they feel that violence is the only way to preserve themselves or those they love dearly".

"Next, from a generalized point of view, it is a study of human thoughts and feelings, and how they use their perspectives and understanding of the larger society in their treatment of other human beings. This is because our thoughts operate in cycles of self-actualization. Our thoughts and emotions affect each other profoundly".

"dark psychology recognizes a range of human behaviors, where some are worse or more evil compared with others".

The author does excellent analysis of Dark Psychology and how to recognise it and protect yourself from it. Reader is encouraged to read the book.

Dark Triad of Dark Psychology

There is the Dark Triad of Dark Psychology - three traits that are almost always associated with evil.

"The three dominant traits making up this triad are narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism".

"Individuals manifesting the dark triad personality and its subtypes display tendencies towards criminal activities and violence. Even if they don't become socially unacceptable, they often veer to the suburbs of what is the norm, and tend to lack any empathy, be self-serving, and dominantly (sometimes cruelly) manipulative".

Narcissism

inaccessible, aloof, overconfident, auto-erotic, self-important, exhibitionistic

fantasies of omnipotent and omnipresent

unique for nothing

want praise and admiration for their superiority, even when they have done nothing to merit it

Narcissism: Having a God-Complex. "These personalities, he discerned, came across as inaccessible, aloof, overconfident, auto-erotic, self-important, and exhibitionistic".

"They also displayed fantasies where they’d be omnipotent and omnipresent figures. Jones’s studies revealed his understanding that narcissists needed to be 'unique' for nothing was as offensive to these personalities as the notion that they resembled someone else.

Everyone can be guilty of putting their needs ahead of others sometimes, but narcissists will do this like it is their bread and butter.

You could say that a narcissist is someone who loves themselves to the point of refusing to believe that anything existing outside the realm of their own interests can have any possible validity or importance.

They have a proclivity for placing the onus of failure on others.

narcissists want praise and admiration for their superiority, even when they have done nothing to merit it. When asked about their accomplishments and abilities, they will often embellish trivialities or flat-out lies".

Machiavellianism

cunning and sneaky

working in the background and pulling the secret strings

absence of words needed for expressing feelings and emotions

tell others what they want to hear

Machiavellianism: "no matter what the means are, the end always justifies them".

"living a life where you are feared by others is better than one where you're loved. He also felt if you need to injure someone, the extent of the injury should be such that the victim should never be able to take revenge on you".

"Machiavellian personality does not have a discernible moral code and is cunning and sneaky".

In contrast to narcissists, "Rather than constantly putting themselves up for display and adoration, they’re perfectly fine with working in the background and pulling the secret strings, so long as the outcome is just what they desire".

"Machiavellian personalities may also be unable to identify or label their own emotions and feelings. Alexithymia, which is common to Machiavellian people, is the absence of words needed for expressing feelings and emotions. People with this condition not only have trouble expressing their emotions, but they also cannot differentiate their emotional state from their physiological or physical states of being".

"They tell others what they want to hear with the covert aim of maximizing their own benefits".

Psychopaths

act cruelly or aggressively towards other living things

causing harm for their own sake

might start a fight and then play the victim

aren't bothered about the repercussions of bending or breaking rules

Psychopaths: "The defining characteristic of psychopaths is their unusual proclivity to act cruelly or aggressively towards other living things, including, but not limited to, people. While Machiavellians may look to causing harm for their own sake, psychopaths may harm for no good rhyme or reason".

"To them, 'I just felt like it' may be as good a reason as any for bullying, trolling, or assaulting others".

"Psychopaths also have a deformed amygdala, which is key to feeling emotions like guilt, sadness, and fear"

"Psychopaths like the opportunity to stir up trouble. Keeping things interesting is essential since they become bored rapidly. They might start a fight and then play the victim. At the same time, their actions cause chaos in other people's lives while they remain unmoved".

"There is a mix of ruthless selfishness and remorseless boldness in people of this trait. They may come across as careless individuals because of their natural love for taking risks. They lack inhibitions and, as such, aren't bothered about the repercussions of bending or breaking rules".

* * *

Dark Psychology is about behavior of people; and environment(situations, conditions).

"violence originate from a dispositional context (in other words, the innate sadistic personalities of the prison guards) or a situational context (occurring due to the constant exposure to a prison environment)".

There are situations where even the best of us will commit evil. We have to be aware and never let those situations and conditions exist.

There are people with "innate sadistic personalities" that use dark psychology to hurt others. We have to ensure they never get into position of power where they can harm anyone.

"Disliking someone because of a mental condition is unethical and unfair".

Dark Psychology practitioners, manipulators, and emotionally undeveloped people with "mental conditions" are all around us.

All we can do is:
Recognize their mental condition
Avoid or limit or carefully manage our interaction with them
Ensure they have no power over others outside their private lives

Last point is the key. We have to ensure people with "mental conditions" should not have any power over others in a corporation, institution or government as they can do a lot of psychological, emotional, financial, or even physical damage to others.

Unfortunately, Dark Psychology practitioners, manipulators, emotionally undeveloped people are deeply attracted to such corporations, institutions or government for the power over others it provides.

This is what needs to be done to stop them from doing psychological, emotional, or financial, or even physical damage to others.

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