Psychological manipulation in relationships takes different forms. The most common ones are gaslightning, triangulation, and silent treatment. No matter its form, manipulation is always ABUSE. At its core, there is a need to exercise undue influence through mental distortion and emotional exploitation on a partner/spouse or other family member/s. Those who manipulate, intent to seize power and control, and receive various benefits and privileges at the expenses of the manipulated partner/family member. Once successful, the manipulative partner (usually a narcissist or a person with another cluster B personality disorder) will repeat their abusive behaviour over and over again, as they lack empathy, have no remorse, and deny taking responsibility for their own actions. 

In this episode, Ashish Parekh and I talk about toxic relationships and psychological manipulation with our guest, Sibin Varghese. We share more light on how manipulation in toxic relationships looks like,  how this type of abuse affects other areas of our lives, and what can we do if we realise that our relationship has been harming our wellbeing and mental health for a long time. 

If you have ever been in a long-term relationship or married, it is quite likely that some people around you, at one point of time or another, very willingly and enthusiastically gave you and your partner/spouse advice on how to run your relationship. These could have been parents, in-laws, siblings, members of the extended family, or even friends or co-workers. If being given "good advice" happens not too often, we can always decide whether it is something to ponder on or something that we should let in with one ear and let out with the other. However, sometimes giving "good advice" takes a very wrong turn and becomes a chronic intrusiveness that greatly disturbs or threatens the existence of your relationship/marriage in the long run.  

In this episode, Ashish Parekh and I talk about external influences and interference with relationships/marriages with our guest Prasanna Shivashankaraswamy. We learn how these influences look like in the US, Europe, and India, and discuss what to do if we become a regular recipient of "good advice" from the outside sources more often that we would like.