‘Manipulative Feelings’

Have you ever felt when someone tried to manipulate your feelings? or your friends have talked about it?

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.

Almost everyone can be a little bit manipulative from time to time. Sometimes a person is having a bad day. Sometimes they’ve fallen into bad habits and poor communication. In these cases, calling someone out on their bad behavior may be enough to put a stop to it,

However, some people are habitually or pathologically manipulative and must be handled with care. A person who habitually engages in emotional manipulation is said to be Machiavellian. This term comes from Niccolò Machiavelli, the author of a 16th-century book called The Prince, which advocates for political leaders to use manipulative tactics.

Friends who like to manipulate other people’s feelings are really bad in my opinion. that person makes it seem like they are okay with us but that person is covertly intending to heat us. Because it’s veiled as if people don’t know, so we can’t confront him. I can say this person is really great because it can make someone mentally hit or mentally kill someone with a smiling face.

Signs of Emotional Manipulation

1. Passive Aggression
   In passive aggression, the manipulator doesn’t voice negative feelings toward or problems with a person. Instead, they find indirect ways to express their anger and undermine the other person.
2. Social and Emotional Bullying
   Bullies don’t always use physical violence. Constant criticism raised voices, and threats are forms of emotional bullying. Social bullying can take the form of rumor spreading or deliberate exclusion. Bullying can also take the forms of intellectual and bureaucratic bullying. In intellectual bullying, someone tries to claim the role of subject matter expert, making another person feel inadequate and dependent on them for information. Bureaucratic bullying is the use of red tape — laws, procedures, or paperwork — to either overwhelm someone or subvert their goals.
3. Distortion
   Another strategy used by emotionally manipulative people is the distortion of facts, relative importance, or other information needed to accurately assess a situation. In some cases, the manipulator will simply lie or pretend ignorance about a matter.
4. Guilt and Sympathy
   Many people are highly susceptible to guilt and will even go so far as to punish themselves in response to perceived sins. Emotionally manipulative people prey on this vulnerability. They are apt to play the victim or remind you of past favors, instilling a sense of obligation or sympathy that makes them more likely to get what they want.
5. Withdrawal
   The easiest example of this kind of emotional manipulation is the silent treatment when someone punishes you by ignoring you.
6. Comparison
   Sometimes a manipulative person will draw a comparison between you and someone else to goad you. They may use a specific person to make you feel insecure or try to establish a sense that “everyone else” is doing whatever they want you to do. They may even recruit others to pressure you into a certain emotion or action.
7. Manipulation of Circumstance
   This strategy is common in business negotiations. It may be as simple as someone insisting you meet them in their home or office, where they feel most powerful. Or they may create a constraint, such as a deadline, in a way designed to pressure you into an ill-considered decision.
8. Overwhelming and Unearned Closeness
   An emotional manipulator may try to bind you to them through manufactured vulnerability or an artificially accelerated relationship. Showering a new acquaintance with praise and affection, also called “love-bombing,” is a common tactic of emotional manipulation often seen in cults.

How to deal with it?

• Avoid people who engage in love-bombing
• Assert yourself and your boundaries out loud, even if it feels rude to do so.
• Speak to others about emotional manipulation and get their validation.
• Take your time instead of being rushed into decisions you may regret.

source: WebMD Medical Reference.