Human beings often use a wide variety of strategies to get what they want. In some cases, the chances of getting close to your targets are so slim that attempts lead nowhere of importance. Most people have goals and expectations in life and each of them faces situations with specific mechanisms to fulfill them.
However, there are people who seek to exercise power over others through methods that impose dominance. If this sounds familiar to you, this article will surely be very useful to you. In this Psychology-Online article, we will talk to you about how to beat a manipulator and we will give you 11 strategies to achieve it.
Learn to say ‘no’
How to set limits to a manipulator? First of all, we must. As a general rule, the manipulative person seeks to cross the limits imposed by certain regulations in various areas. Thus, if clear and concrete limits are not set, manipulation can cause harmful effects for the person who is in contact with the manipulator. For this reason, learn to set limits It is crucial to avoid unfavorable consequences.
Appeal to thirdness
Related to the previous point, manipulative people do not have a good relationship with laws that impose limits. Because of this, when we show them that it is not possible to comply with their demands due to regulations that exceed us, we are showing them that there is a third party with greater authority. This is a good strategy to prevent giving in to the wishes and demands of the manipulator.
Keep calm
One of the most important points that we must take into account when dealing with a person is to be aware of the position they may adopt to achieve what they want. This posture they maintain in the face of conflict usually causes the manipulated person to have unpleasant emotions that make them lose their cool.
When this happens, the manipulator usually takes advantage of the situation. For this reason, keep your sanity allows you to dominate the moment and avoid falling for the gadgets that the manipulator develops.
Perform psychological therapy
Reflecting on our way of being allows us to generate questions about the people with whom we interact. In this sense, psychological therapy helps us know ourselves in depth to look for new strategies and/or tools to confront manipulative people.
Postpone your demands
In general, a manipulator tries to satisfy his desires immediately through actions that exert power over his victims. If the victim of manipulation is afraid of rejecting her desires, an alternative to achieve this is to tell her to postpone what the manipulator wants. Postpone the manipulator’s demands can make me give up in the end of your objective.
Become aware of your behaviors
When we understand the way manipulative people act, there is a greater chance of being able to interfere in the actions they take in the future. Therefore, one of the keys is to analyze both the behaviors and the thoughts and emotions they have. This allows us to detect them in time and develop alternatives to confront them.
Avoid justification
Sometimes we try to convince ourselves that the bad actions of other people who exercise control over us have a justification that validates their actions. However, this can be a trap that we set for ourselves to maintain an unfavorable bond. Avoiding justifications for manipulative behavior can be an effective option to control them.
Improve our personal rating
People with manipulative characteristics usually look for victims to dominate them. This is because people with low self-esteem tend not to question the attitudes that disadvantage them and make them feel bad.
On the contrary, people with high self-esteem are less likely to be manipulated or fall into emotional blackmail. In this way, work aimed at strengthening personal skills can help in manipulation situations.
Be consistent with words and actions
People are characterized by the ability to speak and act. However, sometimes we say things that we don’t do and vice versa. It is important to support the ideas that we present to the manipulative person with behaviors that are along the same lines.
If a contradiction appears between our words and actions, manipulation could gain ground and take advantage of the situation. When we have firm and consistent convictions, our point of view will be strengthened.
Make your behavior visible
To manipulative people They don’t like having their bad actions publicly pointed out. and they usually look for allies to avoid being discovered. However, when we confess to more people that their actions are malicious and intended to harm other people, they usually quickly change their behavior and/or try to play the victim.
If you want to know more about how these types of people act in these cases, you can also read
Go to other people
Loneliness in the face of the manipulative person produces unfavorable consequences. If manipulative people detect that we are alone, they can carry out a series of strategies to take advantage of the situation. For this reason, seeking help from trusted people is important. to not give in to manipulation and emotional blackmail.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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Bibliography
- Serra Undurraga, J.K. (2016). The diagnosis of narcissism: a rational reading. Magazine of the Spanish Association of Neuropsychiatry, 36 (129), 171-187.
- Trechera, JL, Millán Vásquez De La Torre, G., Fernández Morales, E. (2008). Empirical study of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). Acta Colombiana de Psicología Magazine, 11 (2), 25-36.