The meeting organized by the Municipality of Basiglio was well attended.
My talk was about “emotional manipulation” in relation to romance scams.
In the last three years, 380 cases have been handled by the Postal Police, of which 279 women and 101 men.
On average, the age of the victims is between 40 and 60 years, and those involved are mainly women from all walks of life: housewives, psychologists, teachers, businesswomen.
In general, the affective manipulator (man or woman) can be the partner, a family member, a friend, a colleague or an acquaintance who establishes a sort of perverse game in relating to the other.
Leveraging on the victim's weakness and need for affection, he criticizes, blames and attacks him in order to satisfy his requests.
But the manipulator also uses lies to confuse…
The victim of emotional manipulations has a fragile personality, in need of affection and with low self-esteem.
The manipulator will hardly change his attitude.
Therefore, the solution is not the change of the other but our own, greater awareness and the acquisition of a greater sense of personal self-efficacy.
In the most serious cases, the help of the psychotherapist is needed to find and fortify oneself.
But the manipulation can be stopped!