Summary: After 38 years as a psychotherapist, Dr. Carol Francis notes that couples, parent-child relationships, business settings, romances, and daily conversations can be loaded with manipulations which are both helpul and harmful. In this program, we make it more clear when we are manipulating or influencing each other in a positive way (as with Andrew Carnegie's "How to Win and Influence Friends") and when emotional manipulators cause serious damage. Emotional manipulators are individuals who try to defeat, over-take or control others by using emotionally entangling techniques. Starkely, these types of manipulations keep people in abusive relationships with violent spouses, sickening parent-child abuses, or bullying at work or in romantic relationships which turn very controlling and/or violent. Of course, we all influence each other and in fact parents, teachers, bosses, marketing companies and advertisements can positively learn the art of manipulating their circle to create amazingly positive outcomes or connections. But emotional manipulators are typically geared to oppression, bullying, dominating, undermining, exerting some power, or bleeding a person's finances or gaining sex on demand, even rape. This podcast, one of many on this topic, helps listeners recognize the importance of 1) self-respect, 2) self-knowledge, 3) differentiaing kindness from manipulation, 4) being clear on personal vulnerabilities that give manipulators access to your emotional bank account and more. Dr. Carol Francis, Clinical Psychologist, Marriage, Family & Child Therapist in the Los Angeles Torrance, Manhattan Beach, Palos Verdes, San Pedro - can be reached at drcarolfrancis.com for help or comment.
