Dear readers,
It is not always easy to start a conversation about such a peculiar and uncharacteristic topic, it's not the word Psychology that gives already an idea of a vast and ever-developing subject the one putting me in a dire situation. The real deal, the big monster to defeat is certainly the word Manipulating. This book will take you in a detailed journey about the world of Manipulation, with all the implications this topic has on reality. We will see, before anything else, what it is about and how effectively changes and influences our daily life as much as the course of our existences.
Manipulation per se does not hold a negative connotation, nor a negative ethical point of view. Think carefully, you manipulate objects every day, you manipulate data constantly and even words. You have probably done once in your life the human-phone game, possible as a child or as young teenager: an input word that is communicated whispering from a person to an other until the last one who tells it to everyone. That little game and funny experiment is nonetheless an immediate example of manipulation as something we do automatically, as easy as breathing or eating, it is the necessary passage of information in our own mind to bring us at it.
Legends and myths we loved so much to read when we were at school are the embodiment of possibly real stories manipulated to give a lesson, a moral teaching or simply to better reflect a reality different from the one they started. A natural process after all that could become a voluntary action when we inject with a design the changes we prefer. Not just into the reality but also into other people. Information are, after all, the link between us and the reality of the world we live in, manipulating them will certainly have an impact on this and, when dangerous individuals are performing this deliberate act, nefarious things are for sure on the horizon.
Manipulation is a complex process, something that can be used not just to change information but to hijack other people's preferences and believes. And that is why, after writing about Dark Psychology and its impact on society and daily routine, I decided to go into the depth of this peculiar and very interesting topic. Bringing you my knowledge and experience and giving you a start to better understand and foresee manipulating attempts by other people or institution. My idea is to give you a set of tools not just in form of definitions but also as examples taken by reality and history to analyze proper threats and therefore neutralizing them, not just for your own mental safety but also for your loved one's sake.
In this context, my dear reader, be aware that this set of information I'm going to provide you through the chapter and pages of this volume will give you also the possibility to not just prevent yourself from being manipulated but also to be able to do yourself the manipulation. It will be up to you and to your own moral standard to decide what to do: as always, from the capability to do things comes the responsibility to check what is proper and what is not.
