Manipulate a Narcissist (The way to Ethically Manipulate the Manipulator)

One way that you can do that is by being prepared and expecting how they are going to behave and then not be surprised when they behave like a narcissist. So that when they go off on you, when they call you many names and say that you’re a deadbeat, or say that you’re a loser, or whatever verbiage they use that basically says that, you’re going to say, “Oh, I expected you to say that. There you go, being your narky self.” Smile and move on. And then if you need to respond to them, you respond very, tactically.

Responding tactically.

If they send you a long, huge text or a long, huge email filled with vitriol, filled with poison, filled with many things meant to trigger you, you are going to respond tactically. You are going to look through this email as if you are reading the newspaper, or reading a fact sheet, or a datasheet. And you’re going to go, “I don’t need to respond to that. I don’t need to respond to that. I don’t need to respond to that. Oh, that I need to respond to.” So you just pick the one or two things in there that you say, “Okay, I need to respond to that.

Like what time are we doing something, or when will this take place or something like that, some factual thing? And then you respond only to that. And then the rest of it you either ignore or maybe you say something very tactical, like, “I ‘have received your email. I deny your allegations. And here’s my response to the one thing that I need to respond to. So tactical responses are very helpful.