Stop Being Manipulated

I like the authors' advice. Typed up the steps so I can more easily refer to them and learn them without having to sift through all those pages again. I did get really, really tired of going over the stories of the example-people. Enough already! Just give me the facts. The advice was good and usable, but the book didn't need to be THAT long and drawn out.

I owe my sanity to this book. I was (am?) somebody who was manipulated by my co-workers, family, friends and even my wife. In desperation I picked and read this book. I have since defended myself and I feel much better about myself. As a matter of a fact my wife just tried to insult and bully me before I wrote this. I have neutralized the feelings of guilt and anger I used to feel and bounced it right back to her. I feel great, unfortunately she doesn't. One of the most important things the authors say is that in any manipulation is that the manipulator is actually paying you a compliment. The manipulator feels you are superior in some way to him or her. Upon knowing this, you objectively can deal with the manipulator and you can actually choose one of the five techniques they teach you. The techniques range from ignoring the attack to a complete reversal. These techniques stop the manipulation and the feeling it evokes dead in its tracks. Once you practice them a few times you will never look at a manipulation quite the same way. I was actually enjoying myself neutralizing my wifes attack. I believe everybody who is being bullied should carry this book. (According to the authors should is a bad word, it creates guilt and is one of the weapons of the manipulator and I don't want to be that.) To rephrase, If you are bullied get the book. I would of given the book 5 stars, but parts and passages of the book are not logically laid out and have to be re-read over to understand them. What the book doesn't have in style, it makes up for it in content. Overall, I feel indebted to the authors, I would love to talk to them or write them and tell them the difference they made in my life. I thoughroughly recommend it.......if your are being manipulated. If you are a manipulator, you SHOULD feel ashamed.