Family life psychology advice. Psychology of the Family: Statement of the Problem of the Family in Modern Psychological Science. A family is two adults

PRINCIPLES

EFFICIENT MANIPULATION

CONSCIOUSNESS

Sequence principle

The natural desire of people to be and be considered consistent- very powerful remedy influence. Not infrequently, the principle of consistency leads us to act clearly against our own interests. How does an inconsistent person usually appear in the eyes of others? That's right: fickle, unreliable, windy, capricious, unfounded, unfaithful - but you never know epithets? Who wants to have such a reputation?

But it is much more convenient and pleasant to look consistent: such people have the reputation of reliable, reasonable, decisive, convinced of their views.

In addition, the desire for consistency allows you to avoid constant thinking, decision-making, and protects you from many worries. The mechanical striving for consistency is a kind of protective automatism of our thinking. That is why this principle Goldmine for manipulators striving for a mechanical, without unnecessary thought, satisfaction of their wishes.

Our own tendency to be consistent pays big dividends to these exploiters.

The leading role here is obligations. Since a person has made an obligation, he, according to the rule of succession, will strive to fulfill it. If his position is determined, then he will automatically act in accordance with it.

One of the clearest evidence of this is the adoption of the military oath. Examples of the use of our commitment to be consistent can be found at every turn.

It is much easier, for example, to borrow money from a person if, when calling him, first of all ask how he is doing or how he feels. But, of course, the purpose of such a call is not participation and not love for one's neighbor. The borrower expects to receive a standard response. To such courteous, formalized questions, people tend to automatically respond with something like, "Thanks, that's fine," "Great," "Good," or "I'm fine, thanks." And as soon as the borrower heard that everything is fine, it is already much easier for him to drive a potential lender into a corner - to force those who have rubbish to come to the rescue: “How nice to hear that! Calling you to ask if you could help me…”

Written commitments have a magical effect in general. Why do we write receipts, sign contracts, put our signatures on agreements? Because a written document, unlike oral statements, cannot be forgotten or denied. It requires strict adherence to the principle of consistency for exactly as long as it exists.

The principle of reciprocity

This is also called the gratitude rule. It is deeply rooted in human consciousness. According to him, if another person has provided us with something, then we should try to repay him for this courtesy in some way. If we were given a gift, rendered a service, invited to a birthday party, responded to our request, then we should pay tribute: take care of the “gift”, if necessary, provide a return service, invite us to visit, etc. This rule, as it were, guarantees us a reward for the benefit rendered. It is universal and powerful. Focusing on the future, people try to make sure that everyone adheres to this rule and believes in it. Charity is, as it were, an investment for the future. Human evolution has made the system of appreciation a social automatism, a stereotype, a feature human culture. The words “thank you” or “thank you” today mean about the same thing as the phrase “I owe you a lot”.

But if there is a stereotype, then there will always be someone who wants to use it as an instrument of influence for their own benefit. The automatism of the principle of reciprocity is no exception. It's worth just watching. Many requests or demands are fulfilled by us only because a sense of gratitude obliges us to do so.

Look around: there are a lot of manipulators around who can force you to do anything. They just do a little courtesy before they ask you for what they need. It is inconvenient to refuse in this case - the fear of sticking the label of an ungrateful person on oneself works. Those who figured out this secret exploit it at every opportunity. Annoying sellers, crafty employers, selfish colleagues, cunning acquaintances - they are countless ...

The principle of public proof

By nature, the vast majority of people are imitators, and only about 5% are initiators, initiators. Most consider their behavior to be correct if they see other people behaving in a similar way or thinking the same way. We automatically assume that if lots of people are doing the same thing, they must know something that we don't. Most of the time, it's really justified. But "psychological speculators" effectively exploit our automatic tendency to believe that an action is right if it is done by others or if it conforms to accepted norms.

Also in ancient times the hunters realized that it was possible to kill a huge number of animals by driving the herd to a steep cliff. Rushing animals, looking at the behavior of other individuals and not seeing anything ahead, decided their own fate. Those rushing behind pushed those running in front, and thus the whole herd of its own accord became food.

The term "scapegoat" means "a specially trained animal used in slaughterhouses to lure herds to the slaughterhouse."

Professional beggars “salt” their hats and palms with a few coins supposedly already thrown by other people, urging us to follow their example.

The word "authority" comes from the Latin BUT uctoritas - power, influence. The consciousness of the need for unconditional obedience to something or someone authoritative is very deeply rooted in the minds of people from childhood. Moreover, from age to age, from a young age, we are instilled with the idea that disobedience to authorities is wrong, abnormal, and even punishable.

Of course, it is even convenient to obey the orders of true authorities: after all, they are actually knowledgeable, wise and strong, which means they know what they are doing or commanding. They have already thought about everything for us and decided. These qualities inspire only respect. Therefore, our subconscious has developed an attitude: to obey the authorities is rational.

But we must be aware that it is not so much the authorities that can influence us and control our behavior as the atmosphere that surrounds them, authority .

Authority is demonstrated by symbols of authority. And the subconscious is accustomed to responding specifically to symbols, and not to the actual authority. The main symbols of authority are titles, clothing, demeanor and attributes.

Well-known scientists, writers, lawyers, doctors, whose contribution to the life of society is generally recognized, enjoy indisputable deserved authority. The authority of the waiter, when he recommends this or that dish to us, is dictated by our understanding that he knows Which dish turned out better today. But the waiter can also use this subconscious setting of ours, recommending not particularly successful, but simply expensive dishes.

If some “Vasya from the street” proves a new economic theory of saving Russia on TV, we will listen to him just enough to smile and forget about his words in 5 minutes. If this is done by an honored doctor of economic sciences or a famous banker, then we will definitely pay attention and think about it. But if the same "Vasya" is presented to us as a talented young talent with a great future, and also begins to argue in the manner of an accomplished economic celebrity, then he can count on our special interest. By the same principle, by the way, the “promotion” of young pop singers is being carried out.

Benevolent Principle

It is difficult for people who are sympathetic to us with whom we have spiritual intimacy to refuse their requests. Manipulation professionals actively use this quality in their influences.

Typical characteristics that affect the attitude of others around a person:

physical attractiveness

Our reaction to the attractiveness of people is mental automatism, which belongs to the category halo effects . This is when one positive feature of a person is more noticeable and, as it were, overshadows all his other qualities.

From year to year in universities, students in the course of a classic experiment describe the character of people only from the photographs presented. More attractive people are consistently rated as more successful in their professional careers and in their personal lives.

The results of the elections show that voters give 2.5 times more votes for candidates with harmoniously built faces and figure than for unattractive ones.

Similarity to the target

The similarity can be anything - in hairstyle, clothes, brand of cigarettes, outlook on life, hobbies, name, etc.

"Masters of manipulation" usually bring to automatism (which sometimes they themselves do not notice) the skills to be in some way outwardly similar to the interlocutor. And in a conversation, they necessarily emphasize a certain commonality of interests, lifestyles ... This greatly facilitates their task of subordinating those around them to their desires.

Employees of travel companies around the world, talking with a potential client, pay attention to all the details. Seeing a mobile phone in the interlocutor's hand, the agent may notice that he, too, has long wanted to purchase just such a model. Having learned that the client is a programmer by education, he will say that his son also dreams of this profession. Seeing the place of his birth in the client's passport, he will report (with practiced surprise) that he or his wife lived in this region for several years.

Praise, flattery and compliments

There is no person in the world whom flattery does not make more accommodating and compliant. People who praise us, admire us, invariably arouse our disposition. A compliment satisfies an important psychological human need for positive emotions. But most of the compliments come from people who need something from us.

Over the millennia, mankind has developed a huge number of varieties of flattery. You can flatter anything - position in society, intelligence, beauty, strength, wit, etc. But you should always consider what is the difference between flattery and compliment: undisguised hypocritical flattery (a strong direct exaggeration of merits) is not trusted by any person, and a compliment is a much more secretive and powerful weapon. It’s one thing for a woman to say: “How beautiful you are!”, And it’s quite another to sigh: “Yes, I understand why your husband returns from work so early ...”.

By achieving spiritual intimacy through approving expressions, manipulators ultimately achieve amazing results. No matter how much they tell the world: “He who gives in to flattery is defenseless,” people still tend to automatically respond to praise.

close acquaintance

The “cooperation” trick is an active demonstration of the fact that the manipulator initially treats a person as his old acquaintance, is ready to break even into a cake for him and therefore expects to create with the client, as it were, one “team” that opposes the outside world: “Yes, I I’ll even argue with my boss for your sake!” Along with this example is the old, like the world, trick "Good - bad cop."

Scarcity Principle

No country in the world likes censorship, which restricts the right to information. And if something in the world is classified, then the topic of the secret automatically becomes a lot of discussion. Think of the same UFO problem.

Anecdotes are most composed in those times when it is dangerous to do so.

In psychology, there is such a thing as the phenomenon of Romeo and Juliet. One must think that the love of young people, immortalized by the great Shakespeare, would hardly have reached the peak of passions, if not for the resistance of parents from two warring families, which only inflamed their attraction to each other.

Modern theaters maintain armies of ushers distributing tickets at enterprises and organizations, but at the same time, a meager amount of them deliberately enters the theater box office. The shortage of tickets not only spurs the audience's desires, but also creates the appearance of popularity and prestige of the theater.

Sellers often stir up interest in a particular product with the message that its quantity is limited and there is no guarantee that there will be enough for everyone, and the demand for this item is huge.

A similar technique is to emphasize that a product is sold only up to a certain date. One of the mottos beloved by merchants is “The unique offer is coming to an end!” and "Right now!". This tactic is aimed at preventing customers from thinking about the purchase properly, "intimidate" them that they will not be able to purchase this item later.

The danger of scarcity and the attractiveness of any object is especially increased if relations of competition arise around the possession of it. As soon as an opponent appears, a lover, indifferent to his girlfriend, again begins to experience true passion.

The same principle of competition for scarcity is used in open auctions, where great inexplicable things truly happen in the battles for a single resource. Inexplicable, if you do not know the principle of scarcity.

Tricks that use the features of the psyche

· DISTURBING SILENCE

Henry Wheeler Shaw once said great words: "Silence is one of the most difficult arguments to rebut." The one who first imposes a pause with his silence receives psychological superiority. The ability to “pause” is a powerful move in the overall strategy for achieving goals.

BRAKING

Ancient wisdom says: "What comes easily, as a rule, is not appreciated." In accordance with it, the one who asks for something quickly is given, on the contrary, by pulling time. The longer they want, the more they value.

ATTENTION DEFICIENCY

One of the methods of psychological pressure is to stop paying attention to the object of manipulation. Despite its simplicity, this is a very painful way of influencing a person.

One way to reflect this technique is to show that you have something that should inevitably interest the manipulator.

TURN ON FUCK

It is very difficult to talk to an amateur. It is easy to confuse and confuse a person if his interlocutor, playing the role of a stupid person, several times in a row says something like: “I don’t understand this, could you explain it again?”

Noticing such a trick, you can use the "Delay" trick as a defense - say that you will be happy to talk about it later, and the interlocutor will soon understand everything if he listens carefully.

LABELING, or DISCREDITATION, INSINUATION

This trick ensures the creation of obstacles for the opponent to carry out his position. If his arguments are irrefutable, the final goals of their presentation or, in general, his credibility as a specialist and a person are called into question. It can be either a direct accusation, suspicion, “voicing an opinion”, or an insidious hint.

“Yes, this is generally voluntarism!”

“Well, who are you listening to? This is a known liar!

“Listen to him, listen ... Only you don’t know that his daughter is a prostitute!”(Later it turns out that the interlocutor never had a daughter ...)

In the case where such statements take place before the opponent has time to say anything, such a trick is called "Poisoning the well" - the destruction of the enemy before he even starts to act.

· WHIP AND GINGERbread

A well-known cynical trick, but, oddly enough, according to statistics, it is not so often used. Meanwhile, Al Capone said: "With a kind word and a gun, you can do twice as much as with a kind word." First offering a reward in response to necessary action, and then some punishment for trying to do something unnecessary, it is easier to lead a person to the desired actions.

· ACCESSION OF EXPLOITATION

A means of favoring those present during a dispute in a hopeless situation. Instead of admitting defeat, the manipulator blames the interlocutor:

“Of course, anyone can offend an artist”(meaning that people with a creative nature are more vulnerable, they cannot stand up for themselves);

“Saying all this, my opponent knows very well that in the current situation I cannot object to him. Can such a struggle be called equal? Judge for yourself - is he worthy of honor in defeating someone whose hands are actually tied?

Such phrases are aimed at winning the sympathy of the public for themselves and inciting indignation against their opponent.

· STIRLITS METHOD

The name comes from the famous phrase said by the announcer in the famous film: "Stirlitz knew that, according to the laws of human memory, a person remembers the beginning and end of any conversation, and the middle, as a rule, is forgotten and falls out of memory." Only special techniques for working with the human subconscious can use the middle of a phrase, conversation or story. The art of normal conversation is to emphasize the words you need with information and pronounced non-verbal behavior and put them at the end of the conversation. The one who says the last sentence wins the argument.

PROTECTION AGAINST MANIPULATION

Learn to say "no"

One of the easiest prey for a manipulator is a person who is embarrassed to say the word “no” in time. It's better to be wrong sometimes than to doubt all the time. If you don’t like the interlocutor, “no” must be said decisively.

Keep your distance

The most valuable information about a potential victim is given to manipulators by excessive trust and closeness. Mikhail Bulgakov famously wrote: "Don't talk to strangers."

All scams - from small to global - usually use:

· greed;

Desire to get rich quick

curiosity, in particular, the desire to know one's future, destiny;

Thirst for thrills

Desire to impress

indecisiveness.

Awareness of attempts at external control

An essential sign of manipulation is an emerging feeling of discomfort. You do not want to perform any actions, but due to certain moral circumstances, you are forced to perform them: otherwise it will be “uncomfortable”, “selfish”, “boorish”, “ugly”, “awkward”, “You will not justify whose something of trust”, “you will look in a bad light”, etc.

Verbal signs of manipulation

In the statements of manipulators, the following is invariably present:

You are solely responsible for the proposed action;

· Your "fee" outweighs your benefit;

The presence of elements of coercion or coercion;

obligatory preparatory preamble before, it would seem, non-coercive manipulator's words;

lack of time to make a decision.

Guilt

Only fools and the dead never change their minds.

J.R. Lowell

One of the means of manipulation is the formation of a sense of guilt. Traditional upbringing instills a way of life according to certain rules, the violation of which is charged with guilt.

Here are the most dangerous (manipulatively) of these unwritten zombie programs:

a person is obliged to respond to the speech of the interlocutor and answer the questions asked;

It is the duty of everyone to strive to improve themselves, to work on themselves. For example, a person should try to "be good", tactful, accurate in everything, follow the rules, etc.;

everyone must adhere to decision and not change their minds;

a person is obliged to be understanding, incomprehensibility is condemned;

a person should not make mistakes, and if he made a mistake, he is obliged to realize and experience his guilt;

The person must be logical and predictable.

A person who blindly follows the rules listed above is the best target for manipulation. To protect yourself from feelings of guilt will help formulate relevant counterrule .

So, You don't have to at all:

Answer the question if you do not want to;

Try to always appear attractive;

be a slave to the words you have previously spoken;

understand everything.

Everyone has the right:

· for errors (with the exception of cases of official negligence);

be incomprehensible or not know something;

be illogical;

Say "I don't want"

Change your mind, change your mind

Accept yourself as you are, don't force yourself.

Whether we like it or not, upbringing lays down a program in us: we need to seek the goodwill of others. The costs of this program are manifested in the fact that we are embarrassed to say “no” so as not to offend someone. Having said “yes”, a little later we hate ourselves for being weak-willed.

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People, regardless of their ideology and political preferences, are divided into two types.

Some believe that, in principle, a person is big child, and the manipulation of his consciousness (of course, for his own good) by an enlightened and wise ruler is not only acceptable, but also a preferred, “progressive” means. For example, many experts and philosophers believe that the transition from coercion, especially with the use of violence, to the manipulation of consciousness is a huge step in the development of mankind.

Others believe that the free will of a person, which implies the possession of a clear mind and allows one to make a responsible choice (albeit an erroneous one), is a great value. This category of people rejects the legality and moral justification of the manipulation of consciousness. In the limit, he considers physical violence less destructive (if not for the individual, then for the human race) than “zombie”, robotization of people.

When a self-respecting person hears about the manipulation of consciousness, he thinks that he can’t be fooled. He is an individual, a free atom of humanity. How to influence him?

There was at one time the film "Leukocytes". The task of these "white blood balls" is to rush to the place where the integrity of the blood vessels is broken and foreign bodies penetrate the body. Leukocytes attack them, envelop them, die and close the hole with their "bodies". They catch the presence of foreign substances in the blood in absolutely negligible quantities and rush in the direction of increasing their concentration. So they find their source. They move quickly even against the flow of blood. But this is just one cell, without a nose, without a brain and without legs.

But in the film, shot under a strong microscope, we see them as hordes of strange and very energetic sentient beings. In one scene in the film, a vial of saline (a weak saline solution) is separated by a porcelain partition. Under it, leukocytes are in the solution, and a drop with a foreign protein is carefully brought up into the corner. And here the leukocytes below, having "smelled" the enemy, begin to rush about, then orient themselves, look for pores in the porcelain plate and begin to squeeze into them. At the top, they crawl out of these cylindrical pores, like a man from a sewer well, almost "leaning on his hands", and swim straight to the drop of protein. A complex and steadily executed program of behavior.

Here is a virus, a borderline formation between life and inanimate nature. It shows the possibilities of violating someone else's program. The virus has adapted to exploit a certain type of living cells, "knows how" to find them, to cling to their shell. Having clung to it, it pushes only one molecule into the cell - RNA, in which the commands for the "production" of viruses are recorded. And in the cell, a secret, shadow government arises, which subjugates to its will the entire vital activity of a huge system (a cell, compared to a virus, is a whole country). All resources of the cell are now directed to the execution of commands recorded in the matrix embedded in it. The complex production systems of the cell are reconfigured to release virus cores and coat them with a protein coat, after which the depleted cell dies.

This is the initial, fundamental variant of interaction, in which one participant in the life drama forces others to act in his interests and according to his program in such a way that it is not recognized by the victims and does not arouse their resistance. We have a case of manipulation done by replacing the document in which the entire production program is recorded.

In general no number of ways to influence on the behavior of members of the ecological community surrounding a living entity. The plant frames its stamens and pistil with a luxurious, attractive decoration - a flower that also releases fragrant nectar. Insects flock to smell and color, paying for the nectar with pollination work.

The praying mantis pretended to be a dry leaf, you can't tell. He created an innocent and modest false image that calms the victim.

The scout bee, having found thickets of honey plants, flies into the hive and performs a dance in front of its comrades, accurately indicating the direction to the target and the distance to it.

In principle, human behavior can be programmed

Thus, all living beings influence the behavior of those with whom they coexist in their ecological niche, using natural objects and programs recorded by nature in the form of instincts. But a person in addition to this affects the behavior of other people, influencing the sphere of culture.

Of course, in principle, it is possible to program human behavior by direct external influence on its biological structures and processes. For example, by implanting electrodes in the brain and stimulating or blocking certain centers that control behavior. With some technical sophistication, you can not even implant electrodes, but influence the higher nervous system a person at a distance - with the help of physical fields or chemical means

Of course, you have to keep your ears open. There are enough enthusiasts with totalitarian thinking under any banner, even the most democratic one. In their conviction that they have been given the right to eradicate the vices of "backward" peoples, they easily slide into plans for the biological alteration of "human material."

Compare these two declarations.

L. Trotsky (1923): “The human race, frozen homo sapiens, will again enter into radical processing and become, under its own fingers, the object of the most complex methods of artificial selection and psychophysical training. But Trotsky still did not go beyond selection and training. His ideological heirs turned out to be cooler.

N. Amosov (1992): “Correction of the genes of germ cells in combination with artificial insemination will give a new direction to the old science - eugenics - to improve the human race. The wary attitude of the public towards radical influences on human nature will change, including compulsory (by court order) treatment of malicious criminals with electrodes... But here we already fall into the sphere of utopias: what kind of person and what kind of society have the right to live on earth.

These are the speeches and thoughts of outright extremists. But they reflect the general and secret desire of the elite (even if it is “enlightened”) - to have a people or population that would behave in all spheres of life in exactly the way that is beneficial, convenient and pleasant for it, the elite. The pair of "outspoken" spiritual leaders I have chosen is notable for the fact that they are the idols of an influential part of the cultural layer of Russia, each in their own historical period. Today, Trotsky's reputation is tarnished (although during perestroika there was an attempt to raise him to a pedestal). But N. Amosov, according to polls, quite recently ranked third among the intelligentsia in the list of living spiritual leaders (after Solzhenitsyn and Likhachev).

But let's not talk about plans to "improve the human race" and treatment by court electrodes, or about zombies with psychotropic rays. By the way, the very concept zombie has become so frequently used to the right and to the left that it is useful to take a little space and define what it is.

Among the superstitions common in Haiti, the interest of scientists has long been attracted by the belief in zombie. This is the revived dead man, whom evil sorcerers free from the grave and force to serve them as a slave. There are material grounds for this belief: sorcerers, using a very strong neurotoxin ( tetrodotoxin), can reduce the visible vital activity of the body up to the complete appearance of death - with complete paralysis. If the sorcerer managed to accurately select the dose, this "dead" person came to life in the coffin and was pulled out of the grave by the sorcerer. The sorcerer gave his slave to eat " cucumber zombie"- a drug containing a strong psychoactive plant Datura stramonium L.., from which he fell into a trance. Anthropologists have found sociocultural the meaning of zombification is the sanctions imposed by the priests of the tribe in order to maintain order and confirm their power. Belief in zombies and the power of zombies was shared by all sections of Haitian society - scary tonton macoutes dictator Duvalier were considered his zombies, which, of course, he did not deny.

But let's not talk about zombies, but let's talk about a simple and really existing - here and now - thing that has become an integral part of our life in culture and in general in the environment. About the manipulation of human consciousness and behavior with the help of legal, explicit and tangible means. Let's talk about the huge technology that hundreds of thousands of professional workers use according to their official duties and for a small salary - regardless of their personal morality, ideology and artistic tastes. This is the technology that penetrates into every home and from which a person, in principle, cannot hide. But he can learn its tools and techniques, and therefore, create his own "individual means of protection."

Man is a social being. As Aristotle said -

only gods and beasts can live outside society .

embedded in us biologically a program of behavior is not enough for us to be human. It is supplemented by a program written in signs culture. And this program is a collective work. This means that our behavior is always under the influence of other people, and in principle we cannot protect ourselves from this influence with some kind of rigid barrier. Although there are such oak heads who are trying to do this.

What kind of influence on our behavior we define as manipulation ?

It is clear that the word itself has a negative connotation. With it, we denote the impact that we are dissatisfied with, which prompted us to do such things that we were the losers, and even the fools. If a friend at the racetrack persuaded you to bet on the horse that came first, then when you receive a prize at the box office, you will not say: “He manipulated me.” No, he gave you sound advice.

On the other hand, not every influence, obeying which you were at a loss, you will call manipulation. If in a dark alley they put a knife to your stomach and whispered: “Money and watches, quickly,” then your behavior is very effectively programmed. But calling a stranger a manipulator does not come to mind. What is the meaning of this concept?

The very word "manipulation" is derived from the Latin word manus- hand ( mani p ulus - a handful, a handful, from manus and ple-fill).

In the dictionaries of European languages, the word is interpreted as handling objects with specific intentions, goals (for example, manual control, examination of a patient by a doctor with the help of hands, etc.). It means that such actions require dexterity and skill. In technology, those devices for controlling mechanisms that are, as it were, an extension of the hands (levers, handles) are called manipulators. And those who have worked with radioactive materials are familiar with manipulators that simply mimic the human hand.

From here came the modern figurative meaning of the word - the deft treatment of people as objects, things.

the main signs of manipulation can be identified.

Firstly, it is a kind of spiritual, psychological influence (rather than physical violence or the threat of violence). The target of the manipulator's actions is the spirit, the mental structures of the human personality.

“Manipulation in most cases should be understood as a mental impact that is produced secretly, and therefore to the detriment of those persons on whom it is directed.

Advertising is the simplest example of this.

So, Secondly, manipulation is a hidden influence , the fact of which should not be noticed by the object of manipulation. As G. Schiller notes, “To achieve success, manipulation must remain invisible. The success of manipulation is guaranteed when the manipulated believes that everything that happens is natural and inevitable. In short, manipulation requires a false reality in which its presence will not be felt. When an attempt at manipulation is revealed and the exposure becomes widely known, the action is usually curtailed, since the revealed fact of such an attempt causes significant damage to the manipulator. The main goal is hidden even more carefully - so that even the exposure of the very fact of the manipulation attempt does not lead to the clarification of long-term intentions. Therefore, concealment, withholding information is a mandatory feature, although some manipulation techniques include “ultimate self-disclosure”, a game of sincerity, when a politician tears his shirt on his chest and lets a stingy male tear fall down his cheek.

Thirdly, manipulation is influence which requires considerable skill and knowledge.

Since the manipulation of public consciousness has become technology, there were professional workers who own this technology (or parts of it). There was a system of personnel training, scientific institutions, scientific and popular science literature.

Another important, although not so obvious sign: people whose minds are being manipulated are treated not as individuals, but as objects of a special kind. things. Manipulation is part of the technology of power, and not the impact on the behavior of a friend or partner.

A woman in love can play a very subtle game in order to awaken reciprocal feelings - it affects the psyche and behavior of a man who has conquered her imagination. If she is smart and patient, then up to a certain point she carries out her maneuvers secretly, and her "victim" does not reveal her intentions. This is a ritual love relationships, the specific image of which is prescribed by each culture. If we are talking about sincere love, we will not call it manipulation. Another thing is if a cunning wench decided to fool a dupe. The trouble is that it is not easy to distinguish between these two cases.

Any manipulation of consciousness is interaction. A person can become a victim of manipulation only if he acts as its co-author, accomplice. Only if a person, under the influence of the received signals, rebuilds his views, opinions, moods, goals - and begins to act according to a new program - the manipulation took place. And if he doubted, stubbornly defended his spiritual program, he does not become a victim . Manipulation is not violence, but temptation. Every person is given freedom of spirit and free will. This means that he is loaded with responsibility - to resist, not to fall into temptation.

One of the surest signs that at some point a large program of manipulation of consciousness is being carried out in the fact that people suddenly stop listening to reasonable arguments - they seem to want to be fooled. Already A. I. Herzen was surprised at “how little logic can take when a person does not want to be convinced.”

Communication of people is a continuous theater

Any gesture, any act, in addition to the obvious, visible meaning, has many subtexts in which different incarnations, different “masks” of a person express themselves. The communication of people is a continuous theater, and sometimes a carnival, of these masks - "persons". Recall, by the way, that the Latin word persona comes from the name of the mask in the ancient theater and literally means "that through which sound passes" ( p er- through, sonus - sound). These masks had a bell-shaped mouth to amplify the sound.

We all know that transmitted information can be embodied in a variety of sign systems. Dress, posture, gesture can be more eloquent than words, these are “non-verbal texts”. According to American psychologists (J. Rush), the sign language has 700 thousand clearly distinguishable signals, while the most complete dictionaries of the English language contain no more than 600 thousand words. The acknowledged master of propaganda Mussolini once said: "All life is a gesture." But besides gestures, there are many other sign systems.

Therefore, in principle, we must always interpret, interpret any message, in whatever sign system it may be “packed”. It happens that even when interpreting seemingly transparent and generally accepted signs, there are annoying mistakes. How the woman in the market mourned when a thief pulled out a purse hidden on her chest! She, you see, thought that he climbed "with good intentions."

Many meaningful gestures and actions that seem natural to us (that is, inherent in human nature) are in fact the product of culture. This means that in a different culture they may not be understood or misunderstood. Take such a seemingly simple thing as a slap in the face. This is a purely European gesture, coming from chivalry and rooted in the nobility. Neither antiquity, nor the East, nor the common people knows it. A slap is a "message" with a huge amount of social and personal information.

What is the goal of someone who wants to manipulate our consciousness when he sends us messages in the form of texts or actions? Its goal is to give us such signs that, having built these signs into the context, we change the image of this context in our perception. He suggests to us such connections of his text or act with reality, imposes such an interpretation of them so that our idea of ​​reality is distorted in the direction desired by the manipulator. This means that our behavior will also be affected, and we will be sure that we are acting in full accordance with our own desires.

To say a word or perform an action that would touch the strings of our soul so that we suddenly see reality in a distorted form precisely contrary to our interests is a great art.

The search for hidden meaning is a psychologically difficult process. It requires courage and free will, because it is necessary for a moment to throw off the burden of authority, which the sender of the message often has. Those in power and moneybags - and basically they are the ones who need to manipulate public consciousness - always have the opportunity to hire their favorite artist, respected academician, incorruptible rebel poet or sex bomb to transmit messages, for each category of the population its own authority.

Unfortunately, very often we experience a narrowing of consciousness: having received a message, we immediately, with absolute certainty, accept for ourselves a single interpretation of it. And it serves as a guide to action for us.

Often this happens because we are from the "economy of thinking" follow the stereotypes familiar stamps, concepts, ingrained prejudices.

manipulation - a way of domination by spiritual influence on people through the programming of their behavior. This influence is aimed at the mental structures of a person, is carried out covertly and aims to change the opinions, motives and goals of people in the direction necessary for power.

Already from this very brief definition, it becomes clear that the manipulation of consciousness as a means of power arises only in civil society, with the establishment of a political order based on representative democracy.

This is a "Western-style democracy" which today, thanks to brainwashing, is perceived simply as democracy- the opposite of many types of totalitarianism. In fact, there are many types of democracy (slave-owning, veche, military, direct, Vainakh, etc., etc.).

In the political order of Western democracy, the sovereign, that is, the owner of all power, is declared to be the totality of citizens (that is, those inhabitants who have civil rights). These citizens are individuals, theoretically endowed with equal particles of power in the form of a "voice". The particle of power given to each is exercised during periodic elections by dropping the ballot into the ballot box. Equality in this democracy is guaranteed by the principle of "one person, one vote". No one except individuals has a voice, does not "take away" their particles of power - neither the collective, nor the king, nor the leader, nor the sage, nor the party.

But, as you know, "equality before the law does not mean equality before the fact." This was already popularly explained by the Jacobins, who sent to the guillotine those who demanded economic equality on the basis that, they say, “freedom, equality and fraternity”, right?

In the property sense, politically equal citizens are not equal. And even they must not be equal - it is the fear of the poor that unites the prosperous part into civil society, makes them "conscious and active citizens." This is the basis of the whole structure of democracy - the "two-thirds society".

Property inequality creates a “potential difference” in society - a strong disequilibrium that can only be maintained with the help of political power. The great moralist and founder of political economy Adam Smith defined the main role of the state in civil society in this way: “The acquisition of large and extensive property is possible only with the establishment of a civil government. To the extent that it is established for the defense of property, it becomes in effect a defense of the rich against the poor, a defense of those who own property against those who have no property."

We are talking here about the civil government, that is, about the government in the conditions of civil society. Prior to this, under the "old regime", power was not distributed in particles among citizens, but was concentrated in the hands of the monarch, who had an unquestioned right to rule (and to his main tool - violence).

As in any state, the power of the monarch (or, say, the secretary general) needed legitimation - the acquisition of authority in the mass consciousness. But she didn't need mind manipulation. The relations of domination under such power were based on "open, without disguise, imperative influence - from violence, suppression, domination to imposition, suggestion, order - using crude simple coercion." In other words, the tyrant commands, not manipulates.

This fact is emphasized by all researchers of the manipulation of public consciousness, distinguishing between methods of influencing the masses in democratic and authoritarian or totalitarian regimes.

Here are the opinions of prominent American scientists:

Media specialist Z. Freire: “Before the awakening of the people, there is no manipulation, but there is total suppression. As long as the oppressed are completely crushed by reality, there is no need to manipulate them.”

Leading American sociologists P. Lazarsfeld and R. Merton: “Those who control the views and beliefs in our society resort less to physical violence and more to mass suggestion. Radio programs and advertisements replace intimidation and violence.”

The well-known and even popular specialist in the field of management S. Parkinson gave the following definition: “In a dynamic society, the art of management comes down to the ability to direct human desires in the right direction. Those who have mastered this art to perfection will be able to achieve unprecedented success.

Writer Gore Wydal said that "the American political elite from the very beginning, distinguished by an enviable ability to convince people to vote against their own interests.

In general, one of the leading experts on the American media, Professor G. Schiller of the University of California, gives the following definition: “The United States can definitely be described as a divided society, where manipulation is one of the main tools of control, which is in the hands of a small ruling group of corporate and government bosses... Since colonial times, those in power have effectively manipulated the white majority and suppressed the colored minorities.”

It can be said that the Americans have accomplished a scientific and intellectual feat. Is it a joke - create in the shortest time innovative technology of social management. What took shape in other societies for thousands of years, which in European culture was already based on huge, generalizing philosophical works (such as Aristotle's "Politics" and Plato's "Republic"), in the USA was constructed from scratch, in a new way, in a purely scientific and engineering way.

Herbert Marcuse notes this enormous change: “Today, the subjugation of man is perpetuated and expanded not only through technology, but also as technology, which gives even more grounds for the full legitimization of political power and its expansion, covering all spheres of culture.” Submission is not through technology, but as technology! The tyrant could not create technology, he just subjugated people with its help, and using very primitive systems (an ax and a chopping block are already technology).

The notion that the presence of "democratic mechanisms" in itself ensures human freedom, and their absence suppresses it - the fruit of naivety, almost indecent. To some extent, this naivety was still excusable for the Russians at the beginning of the century, but even then

Berdyaev wrote: “For many Russian people, accustomed to oppression and injustice, democracy seemed to be something definite and simple - it was supposed to bring great benefits, it should free the individual. In the name of some indisputable truth of democracy, we were ready to forget that the religion of democracy, as proclaimed by Rousseau and as implemented by Robespierre, not only does not liberate the individual and does not affirm his inalienable rights, but completely suppresses the individual and does not want to know his autonomous existence.

State absolutism is just as possible in democracies as in the most extreme monarchies. Such is bourgeois democracy with its formal absolutism of the principle of democracy... The instincts and habits of absolutism have passed into democracy, they dominate in all the most democratic revolutions.”

So, Russia has never been " civil society» free individuals. Speaking in cloth language, it was a corporate, estate society (peasants, nobles, merchants and clergy - not classes, not proletarians and owners). More mildly, though derisively, liberal social philosophers call this type of society: warm society face to face". Frank ideologists cut honestly: totalitarianism. How do people behave in such a society when they suddenly have to create power (they are obliged to be "democrats")? This is what we see today and are amazed, not understanding - people choose worthless people, preferably non-Russians, and very often criminals. Meanwhile, there is nothing to be surprised at. This archetype, this subconscious craving manifested itself already at the initial moment of the formation of Russia, when the Varangian robbers were invited to manage it.

The main ways of manipulating consciousness.

In many ways, the manipulation of public consciousness resembles the war of a small, well-organized and armed army of foreigners against a huge civilian population, which is not ready for this war. Sometimes they even say that the manipulation of consciousness is "the colonization of one's own people." Gradually, weapons systems were created in this particular war, and gradually, as knowledge of man and his behavior was accumulated, doctrines of mind manipulation were formed.

what emotions does the color scheme of the election poster excite in the subconscious in decent quarters and in slums, among people of different ages, with different incomes and levels of education, different nationalities, etc.

In the field of radio broadcasting, extensive research has been carried out on how the gender of the speaker, the tone and timbre of the voice, and the pace of speech affect the subconscious. All these parameters began to be selected depending on which strings in the subconscious needed to be touched with a particular message. During the Kennedy campaign, psychoanalysts predicted that in radio debates he would lose to Nixon in certain states due to his voice being too high and "Harvard accent" - where Nixon's low and rough voice would be perceived as more sincere. Kennedy was advised to avoid radio whenever possible and use television visual perception played the image of Nixon. After the elections, the analysis of voting in different audiences confirmed the analysts' calculations.

The West has experienced a huge experiment - fascism. It turned out that the mastery of the media allows you to carry out a complete, total manipulation of consciousness and involve almost the entire society in the most absurd, suicidal project. Hitler's ally A. Speer, in his last speech at the Nuremberg trials, admitted: “With the help of such technical means Like radios and loudspeakers, eighty million people have been deprived of independent thinking.

Language as a system of concepts, words (names), in which a person perceives the world and society, is the most important means of subjugation. "We are slaves of words," said Marx, and then Nietzsche literally repeated it. This conclusion has been proven by many studies as a theorem.

The cultural baggage of modern man has included the idea that submission begins with knowledge, which serves as the basis of belief. However, in recent years, more and more scientists are inclined to believe that the problem is deeper, and the original function of the word at the dawn of mankind was its suggestive influence - suggestion, submission not through reason, but through feeling. This is BF Porshnev's conjecture, which finds more and more confirmations.

It is known that even a modern, rational person feels the need for suggestion. In moments of everyday troubles, we seek advice from people who are not at all experts in the problem that has arisen for us. It is their “meaningless” consolations and exhortations that we need. In all these “do not worry”, “pull yourself together”, “everything will work out”, etc., there is no information useful for us, no plan of action. But these words have a great healing (sometimes excessive) effect. It's the words, not the meaning.

Suggestibility through the word is a deep property of the psyche that arose much earlier than the ability to think analytically. This can be seen in the development of the child. AT early childhood the words and prohibitions of adults have a great suggestive effect, and the child does not need any justification. “Mom didn’t tell me” is the main thing. When enlightened parents begin to logically prove the need for a ban, they only confuse the child and undermine the power of their word.

Before the child begins to understand articulate speech, he is able to correctly perceive the "predecessors of the word" - sounds made with different intonations, facial expressions, in general, "body language". Ethologists - researchers of animal behavior - have thoroughly described this language and the power of its influence on the behavior of, for example, flocks of birds.

How was the “correct” language of the West created? From science to ideology, and then to ordinary language, a huge number of “amoeba” words passed, transparent, not related to the context of real life. They are so unrelated to concrete reality that they can be inserted into almost any context, the scope of their applicability is exceptionally wide (take, for example, the word progress). These are words, as if having no roots, not connected with things (the world). They divide and multiply without drawing attention to themselves - and devour old words. They seem to be unrelated, but this is a misleading impression. They are connected like the floats of a fishing net - the connection and the net are not visible, but it catches, confuses our understanding of the world.

An important feature of these amoeba words is their seeming “scientific nature”. Will you say communication instead of the old word communication or embargo instead of blockade- and your banal thoughts seem to be supported by the authority of science.

You even begin to think that these very words express the most fundamental concepts of our thinking. Amoeba words are like small steps for climbing the social ladder, and their use gives a person social benefits. This explains their "devouring" ability. In "respectable society" a person is obliged to use them. This filling of the language with amoeba words was one of the forms of colonization - of one's own peoples - by bourgeois society.

The separation of the word (name) from the thing and the meaning hidden in the thing was an important step in the destruction of the entire ordered Cosmos, in which the man of the Middle Ages and antiquity lived and stood firmly on his feet. Having begun to speak “in words without a root”, a person began to live in a divided world, and in the world of words he had nothing to rely on.

What do we see in Russia? A phenomenon has already matured and has been deposited in social thought, a whole cultural project of our democrats - forcibly, through social engineering, to strangle our native language and fill the consciousness, especially of young people, with amoeba words, words without roots that destroy the meaning of speech. This program is being implemented so powerfully and stupidly that there is no need to even illustrate it - we are all witnesses.

When a Russian person hears the words " stockbroker" or " hitman”, they raise whole layers of meanings in his mind, he relies on these words in his attitude to the phenomena they denote. But if you tell him broker" or " killer”, he will perceive only a very meager, devoid of feeling and not awakening associations meaning. And he will perceive this meaning passively, apathetically. The methodical and careful replacement of the words of the Russian language with such amoeba words alien to us is not a “clogging” or a sign of lack of culture. It's a necessary part of mind manipulation. .

The secretary of the Spanish Communist Party, Julio Anguita, wrote in the early 1990s: “A well-known politician said that when a social class uses the language of those who oppress it, it becomes completely oppressed. . The language is not harmless. Words, when spoken, directly indicate that we are oppressed or that we are oppressors.”

He then parses the words supervisor and leader and indicates that it is no coincidence that the press persistently seeks to obsolete the word supervisor. Because this word historically arose to refer to a person who personifies the collective will, he is created by this will. Word leader originated from the philosophy of competition. The leader personifies the individualism of the entrepreneur. It's amazing how every detail is repeated in different points the world the same methods. And in Russia television will no longer say supervisor. Not, leader of Belarus Lukashenko, Communist Party leader Zyuganov...

In large numbers, words are introduced into the language that contradict obviousness and common sense. They undermine logical thinking and thereby weaken the defense against manipulation.

Now, for example, they often say "unipolar world." This expression is absurd, since the word "pole" is inextricably linked with the number two, with the presence of the second pole.

In October 1993 . in the Western press, the expression "rebellious parliament" was introduced - in relation to the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. This expression is ridiculous when applied to the highest body of the legislature (therefore, it is usually said in such cases "presidential coup"). There are no such cases.

Turgenev wrote about the Russian language: “in days of doubt, in days of painful reflections, you are my only support and support.” In order to deprive a person of this support and support, it was absolutely necessary for the manipulators, if not to cancel, then at least to spoil and dishevel the Russian language as much as possible. Knowing this, we can use all these linguistic subversions as a reliable sign: beware, consciousness is being manipulated.

Back in the last century, Le Bon (“Machiavelli of mass society,” as he was recently called) wrote: “The crowd thinks in images, and the image conjured up in its imagination, in turn, causes others that have no logical connection with the first ... A crowd capable of think only in images, receptive only to images. Only images can captivate her or give rise to horror in her and become the engines of her actions.

The effect of combining a word and an image is clearly visible even on the simplest combination. It has long been known that the addition of at least a small portion of artistic visual signs to the text sharply reduces the threshold of effort required to perceive the message. The illustrations make the book accessible to a child or teenager who could not handle it in the "no pictures" edition. Graphs and diagrams make the article interesting (in fact, understandable) for a scientist.

A brilliant invention for conveying messages to people who were not accustomed to reading were comics - short simplified texts, each fragment of which is provided with an illustration. Having become an important part of US popular culture, comics were at the same time, until the advent of television, a powerful tool of ideology. It can be said that the entire history of modern American ideology is inextricably intertwined with the history of comics. Umberto Eco, a culturologist who studied the phenomenon of comics, wrote that comics "have given rise to a unique phenomenon - mass culture, in which the proletariat perceives the cultural models of the bourgeoisie in full confidence that this is its independent self-expression."

For sixty years, Russian people have become accustomed to a certain type of "radio voice" as something natural. And few people knew that in reality the USSR developed its own original school of radio broadcasting as a special kind of culture and even art of the 20th century.

In the USSR, one of the best schools in the world is that on our radio the same announcer, masterfully owning, as it were, several “voice instruments”, can perfectly read out both a message from the field of medicine and an agricultural topic - and they require different arrangements. It seemed surprising how in such a new field as radio broadcasting it was possible to embody the old traditions of Russian musical and poetic culture.

What are we hearing today? Imitating the Voice of America, the announcers use tonality and rhythm alien to the Russian language. The intonations do not correspond to the content at all and are often simply offensive and even blasphemous. The announcers swallow whole words, and there is no need to talk about minor mistakes like inconsistent cases. Messages are read in such a voice, as if the announcer is having difficulty making out someone's scribbles. All this is a reinforcement of the "semantic terror" on the part of phonetics.

Any feeling is good for manipulating the mind.

If they help to turn off common sense at least for a while. But the manipulators always begin to shake those feelings that are already "actualized" in the public mind.

In terms of reasonable payroll, managers top management in the USSR were the most "underpaid" category

Why did small blessings and weaknesses cause rage, but to the boorish luxury of the nouveau riches or incredible incomes privatizing directors such tolerance?

The fact is that in the depths of consciousness, and even in the subconsciousness of many people, there lived a secret belief that socialism would be precisely the kingdom of justice and equality. That utopia where people will be brothers and equals.

The destruction of this ideal, moreover with great exaggeration and rude etching consciousness, caused an attack of anger, which could not be compensated by the arguments of reason (and they were not allowed to express). The Soviet project was originally based on a utopia that people believed in: the secretary of the district committee is obliged to be our brother, and not a hired manager.

A brother who secretly eats his family causes great hatred, than a street thief, for he is a traitor. He is judged by quite different standards.

And the whole perestroika was based precisely on the exploitation of this utopia and the wounded feeling. Instead of appealing to common sense and saying: the heroic period is in the past, let the secretary of the district committee be just our manager, - the feelings of a devoted brother inflamed in people.

The advantage of the new, democratic nomenklatura is that it "stopped lying." Moreover, television specifically convinces people that the new officials, as a rule, are dishonest. But there are no special claims against them, because being a thief is less criminal than a traitor.

The theft of a priest, even a small one, shocks a person, but the theft of a merchant does not in the least.

Western philosophers who study modernity speak of the emergence of the society of the spectacle. We, ordinary people, have become, as it were, spectators, watching with bated breath the complex turns of an exciting performance. And the stage is the whole world, and the invisible director draws us into extras, and the artists descend from the stage into the hall. And we are already losing a sense of reality, we cease to understand where the acting is, and where real life. What is it pouring - blood or paint? Are these women and children who fell down like a mowed-down man in Bendery, Sarajevo or Khojaly - perfectly "playing death" or were they really killed?

The value of this technology for power lies in the fact that a person immersed in the performance loses the ability to critically analyze and leaves the mode of dialogue, he finds himself in social isolation.

Adjacent to the deceit, like the ritual of a performance, is an atmosphere of secrecy. Secrecy becomes the most important and legitimized side of life, so asking questions and demanding answers becomes something inappropriate and even indecent. For a long time we no longer know who, where and why makes the most important decisions for our life. No explanations are given, but, miraculously, no one asks for them - neither the opposition nor the free press. We can only look at the stage and guess.

Performance is a very flexible system. The "directors" do not detailed plans, which are the builder. At the same time, it is impossible to foresee exactly what way will go process, there are only scenarios. But the "directors" are ready to act on any scenario and quickly determine which one is implemented.

It always seems convincing to a person what he remembers, even if the memorization occurred in the course of a purely mechanical repetition, like an annoying song. The message implanted in the consciousness is already valid regardless of its truth or falsity. A. Mol emphasizes: "All propaganda activities and the processing of public opinion by the press are based on this principle." Even earlier, Goebbels expressed the same idea: "Constant repetition is the basic principle of all propaganda."

The researchers came to the sad for common man conclusion: what is firmly remembered as a result of frequent repetition affects the mind, regardless of whether this statement causes objections or approval: “The effectiveness of persuasion is measured by the number of people in whom a given message causes a certain reaction, but the direction of this reaction is not significant.”

Direction of reaction insignificant! The one who stares at the TV screen and hears the same message ten times a day is being manipulated, even if each time he curses with indignation.

Ad masters know that it doesn't matter if it evokes a positive or negative reaction to its effectiveness, what matters is that it sticks in the memory. So a special kind arose - "annoying advertising", the subconscious influence of which is the greater, the more it angers or annoys people.

Information specialists have done a great deal of research to find out the characteristics of messages that make them easier to remember. So, the presence of a critical time value (“temporary memory size”) was found: a complete message should fit in the interval from 4 to 10 seconds, and individual particles of the message - in intervals from 0.1 to 0.5 seconds.

In order to perceive a reasoning that does not fit in 8-10 seconds, a person already has to make a special effort, and few people want to make it. This means that the message will simply be discarded by memory. Therefore, qualified editors of television programs bring the text to the primitive, throwing out any logic and coherent meaning from it, replacing it with image associations, wordplay, even with the stupidest metaphors.

The influence of emotional elements of a message on its memorability has been studied in detail. In the whole balance of different types of memory (figurative, verbal, sound, etc.), the main thing for the manipulation of consciousness is precisely emotional memory.

What is remembered and acts first of all is what caused the impression. The word itself speaks for itself imprinted . Any information, if it is not supported by the "memory of feelings", is quickly erased, forced out.

The role of various feelings in memory is carefully "weighted", so that there are a number of mathematical models that allow one to make quantitative calculations, "constructing" broadcasts and speeches of politicians.

Some messages are purposefully inserted into long-term memory, others into short-term memory, and still others are used as a neutral cover that creates an overall believability.

The relationship between emotional memory and recognition. In mind manipulation, recognition plays a key role because it creates a false sense of familiarity. This becomes a prerequisite for the agreement of the audience with the communicator (sender of the message) - he is perceived by the audience as mine.

To "capture" the audience, recognition is much more important than consciously agreeing with his statements. That is why it is so important to irritate people's eyes from the TV screen.

We all see this all the time in politics. In 1989, a whole bunch of boys from television, who simply hosted popular programs, became people's deputies. They weren't politicians, they weren't specialists, butts who voiced the ideas prepared by the editors. And now, on you, they became deputies, they decided the fate of the country.

Has this situation changed in ten years of hard life? To a small extent. In 1999, young A. Burataeva was elected a State Duma deputy - only because her pretty face was remembered as a television announcer.

Sensationalism is technology. Criteria have been developed for selecting those events that can be turned into a sensation. This is expressed in the well-known aphorism: "If a dog bites a man, this is not news; if a person bites a dog, this is news." Advertisers, including political ones, are interested, as mentioned above, in high memorability their signal, at least on a subconscious level. So they require the media to link their ads to a message that will stick in their memory.

The constant bombardment of the mind with sensory sensations, especially "bad news," has the important function of maintaining the necessary level of "nervousness." This nervousness, a feeling of continuous crisis, sharply increases the suggestibility of people and reduces the ability to critical perception. Violation of the usual, stable social environment always increases situational suggestibility b (in contrast to general suggestibility, this is the name given to special states that arise under the influence of abnormal situations).

Preparation of a sensation is a painstaking and expensive work performed by professional specialists. It is remarkable that the information presented in the form of a sensation on television, with all the reports from the scene, interviews in live etc., as a rule, fundamentally distorts the event. This is noted in the specialized literature on this topic. But this is not important, what is important is the effect for which the sensation is launched. At the same time, the viewer is fascinated precisely by the fact that he observes the “unexpected”, unselected life material, so that there is no mediator between it and reality. This illusion of authenticity is a strong property of television.

Where does TV have such power in the manipulation of consciousness? The first important property of television is its "lulling effect", which ensures the passivity of perception. The combination of text, images, music and a homely environment relaxes the brain, which is facilitated by the skillful construction of programs. A prominent American specialist writes: “Television does not annoy you, does not force you to react, but simply frees you from the need to show at least some mental activity. Your brain works in a non-binding direction.”

The text read by the announcer is perceived as an obvious truth if it is given against the background of a video sequence - images taken "on the spot". Critical comprehension is drastically difficult, even if the video sequence has no connection with the text. No matter! The effect of your presence "in the text" is achieved.

In fact, it is not only about television, but that it has become technical basis to apply complex doctrines of mind manipulation. First of all, we are talking about creating an entire industry of television political advertising. Why did television in politics turn out to be a much more effective means of suggestion than print and radio? Because: that it was discovered, although not yet fully explained -

the amazing ability of the TV screen to "erase" the difference between truth and falsehood.

Even a blatant lie presented through a television screen does not cause an automatic alarm signal in the viewer - his psychological defense is disabled.

The creation of a television image as the main technology of the political struggle had terrible consequences for culture and society as a whole. They say that "image dominates speech" - there has been a change of language in politics. The language has become such that a politician can speak fluently for half an hour, but after that it is impossible to briefly repeat the main content of his speech. The very category of contradiction and conflict is eliminated from politics. Television has turned the political language (discourse) from conflict to conciliation - a politician, creating his image, always promises to "cooperate with all healthy forces."

Clinton once said, "I want TV executives to show films and programs that they could tell their own children and grandchildren to watch." The fact is that a broad study in Europe showed that the TV elite do not allow their children and grandchildren to watch TV, except for a very small number of programs, and precisely those that were characteristic of Soviet TV - calm, decent and educational. So, for your children, censorship, and other people's children must be fooled. The accusation implicitly thrown by Clinton at the top of TV is risky, but it was precisely the mass TV viewer that attracted him to it.

Adam Smith concludes the first volume of his major book, The Wealth of Nations, with this warning: “Any proposal for a new law coming from this class of people must be met with the utmost disbelief and can only be accepted after a detailed and most careful study, carried out not only with every possible conscientiousness, but also with the most incredulous attentiveness. For this proposal comes from a class of people whose interest can never coincide completely with the interests of the entire population, and consists only in leading the society and even burdening it, which they have repeatedly managed to do at every opportunity.

Used materials from sites koob.ru and lib.aldebaran.ru

About this in book "Safe communication, or How to become invulnerable!" say psychotherapists Dmitry Kovpak and Andrey Kamenyukin.

Manipulations and manipulators

Manipulation is a type of psychological influence that is used to covertly introduce into the victim's psyche the goals, desires, intentions, attitudes or attitudes of the manipulator that do not coincide with the actual needs of the victim. ... A person can become a victim of manipulation only if he himself acts as a co-author, an accomplice in the process. Manipulation is not so much violence as temptation, playing on human weaknesses and vulnerabilities. These weaknesses are determined by the characteristics of the psyche and worldview of a person, his system of values ​​and system of relations.

There is no person who would not encounter the manifestation of someone else's influence. Anyone can be a manipulator - a business partner, boss, family member, TV host, politician, or even ourselves.

Below we will take a closer look at the most common types of manipulation and methods of resisting them, which we will call antidotes.

"Foot in the Door"

This method of manipulation is often used by market traders and traveling salesmen. It consists in the fact that at first the seller persuades not to buy, but only to “try” or “try on” his product. In this case, there is a simple but effective trap for consciousness. On the one hand, we are not being offered anything dangerous or bad; it seems that we retain complete freedom of any decision. But one has only to taste or put on what is offered, as the seller immediately asks another crafty question: “Well, how did you like it?” It is generally not easy to answer such a question in the negative, and even more so if you have already “tried on” the product and you liked it. Most often in such a situation, of course, you answer in the affirmative. And thus, as it were, you give involuntary consent to the purchase. Indeed, although it would seem that it is only about taste sensations or external impressions, in fact, another question is hidden behind the seller’s interest: “Will you buy?”

So, for example, vacuum cleaner sellers for a long time in the West, and now in our country, often offer to use carpet cleaning for free, in the hope that once they get to the owners’ house, they will be able to convince them of the need to buy this particular vacuum cleaner. The main thing for them is to get a face-to-face meeting, and there they will already be able to deploy their arsenal of "home-made" various manipulations.

Antidote: Do not feel embarrassed by refusing an imposed offer. Your guilt and discomfort in this case is only a product of false views and irrational attitudes, which are skillfully played by swindlers. You can remove the strings that the manipulators play in this case by giving up the desire to please everyone without exception. Stop striving to "always be on top" - this will help prevent many problems.

Solution here and now

This manipulation technique aims to get the person to make a decision immediately. The manipulator provokes and sometimes directly insists that it is imperative to decide "here and now", since "tomorrow it will be too late." "Grab your bags, the station is leaving!" and similar verbal threats form demands for quick and thoughtless decision making. Creating fuss and emotional stress reduces the degree of awareness of behavior and reasonable control over the situation. This is used by a lot of swindlers, from railway station thieves to participants in financial pyramids.

Antidote: It is worth working out for yourself the rule "do not make hasty decisions." You can get ten times the small gain from a hasty decision, but suffer a much larger loss from the next such rash decision. No wonder folk wisdom claims that "the morning is wiser than the evening." In order not to “burn out”, one should not decide immediately, but take the information into account, postponing the decision for the time necessary for its reflection. Hurry don't rush.

"Carthage must be destroyed"

The repetition technique is another effective way manipulate people's minds. During the Punic Wars - a life-and-death struggle between Carthage and Rome - the stern Roman senator Cato the Elder became famous for his adopted habit. Speaking in the Roman Senate, no matter what he was talking about - whether about elections to the commission or about the prices of vegetables in the Roman market - Cato invariably ended each speech with the same phrase: “And besides, I think that Carthage should be destroyed!" The senator had a goal - to accustom listeners to this idea. Such repeated repetition of the same phrase, in the end, really made the senators get used to the thought behind it so much that the impending destruction of Carthage became something natural for them. At first, they laughed at the wise old man. But then everything happened as he wanted: as a result of a terrible bloody struggle Rome won, Carthage was wiped off the face of the earth, and the very place where it stood was plowed with Roman plows.

Antidote: Monitor the pressure exerted on you, including the technique of repetitions. Don't let quantity turn into quality by reminding yourself of the arguments of your own position.

Use of obscure words and terms

Such a trick as saturation of speech clever words and complex concepts, can cause different reactions in the interlocutor. On the one hand, this creates the impression of the importance of the problem under discussion, the weight of the arguments, the high level of professionalism and competence of the speaker. On the other hand, the use of incomprehensible, scientific terms can provoke the opposite reaction of the opponent in the form of irritation, alienation, or withdrawal into psychological defense. However, this trick succeeds when the interlocutor is embarrassed to ask again about something or pretends to understand what is being said and accept the arguments given.

Antidote: Do not be afraid to admit your incompetence, show your ignorance. It is impossible to know absolutely everything. It is not the level of erudition that is important, but only the desire and desire to learn what is necessary and useful. Mindlessly memorizing dictionaries is a mistake like learning the telephone directory. The most reliable antidote to this kind of manipulation is the absence of fear of being exposed and convicted of not knowing anything.

reverse desire

This technique is about getting something by persistently expressing a desire that is the opposite of what you really want. The fact is that focusing attention on the extreme desirability of fulfilling a request (for example, its repeated repetition) induces, on the contrary, to refuse to fulfill it. And often even provokes actions that are strictly opposite. This antagonism is used by manipulators.

Antidote: Before getting annoyed by the importunity of the asker and deciding to “do the opposite”, try to ask yourself about the goals of the interlocutor and the true motives for such behavior.

Use of "opinion of the masses"

When using this technique, judgments, statements, phrases are selected that create the impression that everyone does this. A message, for example, might begin with the words: “All normal people understand that ... "or" No sane person will object that ... ", etc. Through the "common platform" a person is made to feel confident that the majority of members of a certain social community with whom he identifies himself or whose opinion is significant to him, accept similar values, ideas, programs, etc.

Antidote: Watch for overgeneralizations. They are characterized by marker words, such as all, no one, everywhere, nowhere, always, never, and similar signs of the irrational attitude.

Inappropriate questioning or obstructive clarifications

With such manipulation, the effect is achieved due to the fact that the manipulator pretends that he wants to better understand something for himself. He asks you again, but repeats your words only at the beginning. Further, the manipulator only partially says the same thing, bringing a different meaning to what you said earlier. Thus, he changes the general meaning of what was said to please himself.

Antidote: You should be extremely careful when the opponent asks again about something you said. Always listen to what is being said to you, and if you notice a catch, clarify your words and statements. Moreover, even in the case when the manipulator pretends not to notice your desire to clarify your position once again and tries to move on to another topic.

Artificial indifference or pseudo-inattention

This technique consists in the fact that the manipulator tries to perceive both the interlocutor and the information received as indifferently as possible. So he evokes in the opponent an unconscious desire to try at all costs to convince the manipulator of his importance to him. The manipulator can only manage the information coming from the object of his manipulations, receiving those facts that the object was not going to spread before.

Antidote: Take your time and don't throw all the cards on the table. Take better control of your emotions and behavior.

Fear Manipulation

Exploiting people's fears is one of the favorite tricks of manipulators of all types and stripes. Very often they play on a person's lack of awareness. As a child, parents scared me: “If you behave badly, your uncle will take away the policeman,” “If you study poorly, you will become a janitor.” Now the authorities scare with the threat of dismissal, the spouse - with the threat of divorce, friends or girlfriends - with the loss of relationships. Even TV scares us with gloomy news, and advertising with carious monsters, germs in the toilet bowl and the smell of sweat.

Antidote: Find out how real the threat is. Clarify for yourself the degree and likelihood of danger by referring to independent and reliable sources of information, preferably several.

Manipulation with Presupposition

The human brain is designed in such a way that it automatically thinks out information that is missing in a sentence. Partners may offer each other the illusion of choice: "Will you give me money now or tomorrow?" The presupposition is "you'll give me the money anyway." What currency would you prefer to pay in? The presupposition is "you will pay". Another example: “Write to us why you love Galina Blanca.” Love for this brand is declared as an axiom. The options are artificially narrowed down to an assessment of “for what”? And one more modest choice - to write or not to write. Or, as Carlson cunningly formulated his question: “Have you stopped drinking cognac in the morning?” The answer "yes" or "no" equally puts the interlocutor in an awkward position. There may not be enough time and arguments to defend against presuppositional accusations in a comprehensive manner. This technique is often used in the "black" PR of political technologists.

Antidote: The tactic of avoiding this type of manipulation is similar to that used in the case of opposition to closed questions. It consists in the following: do not agree with the imposed framework of manipulation, voice your version of events and view of the situation.

the site thanks the publishing house "Peter" for the provided excerpt.

Many have heard the phrase "People are divided into those who ride and who ride." What kind of person is this who recognizes the weaknesses of another subject and can profitably play on them? What does it mean to manipulate a person?

The ability to influence an object

The manipulator has the ability to achieve his goal with the help of a person who does not even mean it. It does not need to apply physical strength. It can be assumed that this ability arose due to the weakness of the manager, the unwillingness to show aggression. The technique is based on playing with the mental characteristics of the victims, forcing them to act as if on their own behalf.

Origins of manipulation

The child is dependent on the parents and often suffers from ignoring their needs. Some children stop demanding what they want, but there are those who learn to play on the weaknesses of adults. For example, parents, coming home from work, do not pay due attention to the child - dad watches TV, mom cooks dinner.

If this is repeated every evening, then the child begins to think about ways to return participation in his life. Suddenly he gets sick. Mom and dad are now always there, looking after, talking with the child. That is, the child is in the center of attention. And he decides to use this method further. Another example of child control is throwing tantrums in crowded places. The child knows that mom or dad won't be able to take it and will end up buying the toy. Thus, the ability to manipulate people originates from childhood.

How does a manipulator work?

First he defines himself with the victim and with his goal. How to manipulate a person farther? It is necessary for the victim to reach a state of vulnerability in order for his mental balance to collapse. To do this, the manager begins to play on the characteristics of the psyche and emotions of the individual, causes pity, fear, pride, greed, etc. Provocations can be both affirmative and negative. For example, an inducement through denial would be the remark: “It is clear that you are not easily angered. Well done!" And the question: "Are you so easily upset?" - is a provocation through a statement. Both statements play on the victim's self-esteem.

Working with Destination Settings

In psychology, there is the concept of "irrational beliefs", which can harm the individual. The manipulator can also play on them. The American psychologist Albert Ellis studied such attitudes and deduced the ABC mechanism, which explains their work. It is decoded as follows:

• A - occurrence of events.
• B - beliefs belonging to a particular person, which are used to explain events.
• C - the response of the individual under the influence of his attitudes, which is expressed both emotionally and in behavior.

Personal beliefs can be divided into four groups: "I (you, the world) must"; attitudes that give rise to the illusion of a bad outcome; an opinion about how the world around should be in order for the individual to feel safe; blaming themselves or others.

How to manipulate people the right way

Here are the main ways to control the individual.

1. Changing the information presented in such a way that it is filled with a more beneficial meaning for the manipulator.
2. Hiding information. More often, one important part of the message is hidden.
3. Submission of information. In this method, two methods are used - this is either the delivery of material in a stream, without pauses, or its stretching. In the first case, the addressee is forced to organize a large amount of material and highlight the main one. In the second, because of the story in small parts, it becomes problematic to tie everything together and not lose the thread of the conversation.
4. The order of consideration of the material. Leaving decision difficult question at the end of the conversation, the manipulator can achieve a favorable result for himself without resistance.
5. Influence on the subconscious. This method uses, for example, bright musical accents during a tense moment in the film.
6. Interference. Here, along with the main message, another one is issued in parallel, designed to distort the information of the first one.
7. The inclusion of conflicting signals in one material. For example, the difference between the content of a message and the intonation with which it is pronounced can confuse the addressee.

Language management techniques

There are also linguistic ways. Manipulating people with them is also great.

1. Impossibility to verify the statement. In this case, such expressions are more often used - “All men are bastards”, “We are to blame for everything ...” and so on.
2. An indirect indication of the norm conditionally recognized by society. For example: “You didn’t even clean up after yourself!”
3. Disguise the statement as an assumption. An example would be the following expression - "Despite the fact that they are together, they were never fired."
4. Link to some authority. For example, "All smart people they say…”, “But good doctors think…” and so on.
5. Ignoring the message. Answer with phrases that contain a different meaning.

Greater success can be achieved by applying different techniques, varying them depending on the situation.

Control and consciousness

How to manipulate the human mind? The technique that we will consider is management built on certain verbal and paraverbal structures. In Neuro-Linguistic Programming, it is called "reframing" or "rewriting". The point is to provide a new description of a phenomenon or a certain person in order to give rise to a different attitude towards him. Using the technique, you can call in human feeling hostility to his friend, with whom there were friendly relations. This can be achieved by talking about bad qualities and the deeds of a certain individual, if the name is given only at the end of the story.

Basic Reframing Techniques

Methods of "redescription" explain how a person can be manipulated only by replacing words, part of the message. Let's consider them in more detail.

1. The technique of replacing one piece of verbal information with a new sentence or word. For example, instead of saying "I'm afraid" say "I'm afraid". The fear will no longer be so pronounced, and the individual will take it as an indication to be more attentive and careful.
2. Reformulation of intentions, or rather, their true disclosure. What does it mean to manipulate a person with this method? According to the basics of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, the goal of any behavior is positive. And it is only necessary to discover the true intention, then you can choose more acceptable actions. For example, a wife is often dissatisfied with her husband and allows herself to raise her voice at him. When her husband tries to find out the reasons for this behavior, she cries or leaves. Working with his wife, the psychologist helps to discover the real purpose of hysterical actions - lack of attention, support, love. After pronouncing the intention, the spouse can dress her behavior, for example, in a soft, gentle form and thereby try to achieve the desired again.
3. How to manipulate a person using metaphor? It is a parable or a short story in which there is a comparison with the situation considered. You can use the example from famous fairy tale or cartoon.
4. Another effective technique in "redescription" is to use the criterion that the addressee formulated in the new statement. A case in point is the story of the sinfulness of a woman. When Jesus responded to the offer to throw stones at her: “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at me first.”
5. Encouragement to look at yourself from the outside. Otherwise, change the position of perception of the addressee. How to manipulate a person in this way? When condemning a certain situation by the addressee, you can ask the question: “And if you were in such circumstances?”
6. The technique of influence due to the inability of the brain to distinguish between fiction and reality. Asking questions like "How do you know...?" or “Why did you decide so ...?”, the manipulator reaches the goal of the reception - the “correctness” of the perception of the situation is considered.

As can be seen from the description of the techniques, reframing is based on linguistic techniques that make it possible to consider circumstances in a new way. What does it mean to manipulate a person using this method? This is the disclosure of different ways to achieve their true intentions, as well as the ability to look at actions from the outside.

How to manipulate a person using paraverbal and non-verbal communication

The main feature is the unconscious perception of information transmitted in such ways. Paraverbal communication plays an important role in control by changing the timbre, tempo, volume of the voice, pauses between phrases, and so on. Non-verbal is distinguished by its influence on the addressee with the help of gestures, postures, distance between opponents, etc. great speakers they perfectly mastered each method and knew the answer to the question of how to manipulate a person at a distance and not only. For this, emotional gestures, a penetrating gaze, and a confident pose were used. A calm voice with a volume slightly above average is able to immediately distinguish a person with a leadership vein. If we talk about the speed of speech, the speaker will have the greatest confidence, whose words flow in a dynamic, moving stream. But this is true in the case when it is important for the speaker to disguise his influence on the audience.

Skillful Manipulator

Eye contact with the audience can create an atmosphere of intimacy, understanding, giving the speaker the image of an erudite and experienced person. And, conversely, with a conscious refusal to look into the eyes of the interlocutor, the impression of ignoring or distrusting him can be created. Let us give an approximate scheme of actions of the manipulator, the purpose of which is to force the opponent to accept his point of view.

1. The first step is to express confidence in your abilities and knowledge. Thus, there is a leadership influence on the addressee.
2. The second step is to loosen the verbal flow of arguments once the victim is under the control of the speaker.

Anyone can become a skilled manipulator. To do this, you will need to carefully observe the person, try to detect his weaknesses and hidden intentions, and then start the game.