God forbade...must reading!

Mind games




  The term covers the one gray area no one wants to admit, of all the intimidation and put down, there's a name for the infraction endured.



  Social undermining, the opposite of social support, refers to intentional offenses to destroy someone's favorable reputation, their ability to get things done or to build and maintain positive relationships.



   Setting up to fail is a manipulation someone is given a task with an unrealistic objective and is designed to fail. Under stress and pressure to do the impossible the failed attempt is used as ammunition to discredit and blame the target.



  Going through the motions is another form of setting up to fail. In a sham investigation evidence of wrongdoing is conveniently not found in this mock trial.



  A kangaroo court denies the due process of rights in a hurried decision. The denied rights are the right to summon witnesses, the right of cross-examination, the right to not incriminate yourself, the right to not be tried on secret evidence, the right to control your own defense, the right to exclude evidence improperly found, irrelevant or inherently inadmissible, hearsay, the right to exclude judges or jurors on partiality or conflict of interest, the right to appeal. The kangaroo comes from a notion of justice that proceeds by leaps.



  In the book Games People Play are catalogued transactions superficially plausible, but conceal private motivation, lead to a well-defined predictable outcome, and are usually counterproductive. The book uses the casual phrases, 'See what you made me do', 'why don't you..' to describe each game. Often, the winner of a mind game is the one to return to an adult state, first.



 Destabilization applied to many attempts to undermine political, economic or military power. Psychologically brainwashing and abuse are used to disorient and disarm a victim. In workplace bullying, destabilizing techniques include failure to acknowledge good work and value efforts, given meaningless tasks, responsibility taken away without consultation, constantly reminded of blunders, insisting on compliance, shifting the goal posts and deliberate ripping, demoralizing.



Many cognitive distortions or logical fallacies should be taken in account.



  All or nothing (splitting) thinking. This is thinking in terms of  'always' or 'never' , when, in life, few things are so absolute.

   Overgeneralization, taking isolated cases and using them to make wide and hasty generalizations.

  Mental filter, focusing, exclusively, on certain negative, upsetting events, ignoring the positive, splitting hairs, making a mountain out a molehill.

  Disqualifying the positive, shouting down the positive for personal reasons.

Jumping to conclusion, drawn conclusion from little, if any evidence.

Mind reading, assuming special knowledge of other's thoughts or intentions.

 Fortune telling, exaggerating outcome before it happens.

 Magnification and minimization, distorting memory or situation, it no longer corresponds to objective reality.

 Catastrophizing, focusing on the worst possible outcome, calling it unbearable when it is, really, uncomfortable.

Emotional reasoning, decisions and argument based on intuition or personal feeling rather than sound, objective rationale.

  Should statements, thinking of the way things should or ought to be, rather than how they are, the use of rigid rules that  'always apply', no matter the circumstances.

  Labeling and mislabeling, explaining behavior by naming it, an overgeneralization. Mislabeling is description with the use of emotionally loaded and highly colored language.

 Personalization, attributing responsibility to what no one has control. This, also used in blame.



Wikipedia