Although they hide it behind charming and deceptive facades, Emotional Predators always ruthlessly use others to get what they want. At their core what they want is power – to feel dominant, winning and in control – and they use a variety of tactics to gratify their drive for power. To protect yourself and your…
Once we accept that some people – the Emotional Predators among us – are entirely different from us in core respects, we need to learn how to accurately assess other people. Emotional Predators make their way in life by covering up their true selfish nature, so learn to distinguish between the false facades of goodness…
As I explain in Part 1 of Protecting Yourself from Emotional Predators what we call human nature isn’t one set of identical traits in all people, stable over different times and cultures. Traits vary with individuals, and it’s easy to mistake our unexamined beliefs for intrinsic traits of human nature, rather than the choices of…
I recently heard about a 6 yr old who instinctively put into practice one of the core strategies for protecting yourself from Emotional Predators. Her mother is a selfish narcissist, unable to put herself in her daughter’s shoes, and bent on throwing her daughter under the bus to protect her boyfriend. Mom only sees her…
In all things, and particularly in dealing with Emotional Predators, cultivating humor and gratitude is as important as anything else you do. When you’re grateful or laughing, you can’t feel the negative emotions that Emotional Predators prey on. Humor and gratitude are priceless, free and easily overlooked. They widen your perspective, expand your options, relieve…
Emotional Predators have been called many things: Character Disturbed, Personality Disordered, Narcissists, Sociopaths, Psychopaths, Borderlines, Hysterics, Narcissistic Sociopaths, Sociopathic Narcissists, Malignant Personalities, Malignant Narcissists, Toxic Personalities and Covert-Aggressive Manipulators (among other things). Less technically, you may have heard people with these problems called users, abusers, manipulators, difficult people or just plain jerks. A neighbor of…
“Many of our ideas have been formed, not to meet the circumstances of this century, but to cope with the circumstances of previous centuries. But our minds are still hypnotized by them, and we have to dis-enthrall ourselves of some of them. … It’s very hard to know what it is you take for granted.…
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” Matthew 7:15 What is an Emotional Predator? It’s a person who exploits other people by manipulating them and preying on their emotions, and does this without restraint from conscience or the negative impact on others of their own toxic…