Social Manipulation and the Unconscious

October 10, 2006 7:41 PM

Is there any way to manipulate the unconscious on a micro scale?

I have read about Edward Bernays and psychological manipulation in advertising and government, but what about social manipulation on a micro-scale? Is it possible for a single person to manipulate the subconscious of another person? How? Any suggested reading would be most appreciated.

posted by ifranzen to human relations (14 comments total)

You could do worse than read Douglas Rushkoff's Coercion.
posted by pompomtom at 8:02 PM on October 10, 2006

If I understand the question correctly, you are asking if it is possible for a person to manipulate another person's subconscious, the answer would be a resounding yes. I would suggest that the larger-scale manipulations you cite (marketing, propaganda) arose from knowledge of smaller scale manipulation (of individuals and small groups).

Anytime one person wants something from another, subconscious manipulation is in effect - think about salesmen, guys trying to chat up women, persuading someone to do you a favour, and so on.

I would go so far to say that subconcious manipulation comprises almost all social interaction, to some degree, even if that manipulation is larger subconscious to the maniupulator themselves.

People explicitly interested in this often go on about 'Neuro-Lingustic Programming', but the little I've heard about it makes me think it's silly. You could read up on salesmanship techniques, maybe also the tricks of illusionists and magicians.
posted by MetaMonkey at 8:12 PM on October 10, 2006

There's always speed seduction. Jeffries claims it can bring you hapenis, but you don't need to stoop to that, it's b'low you.
posted by crabintheocean at 8:13 PM on October 10, 2006

Milton Erickson is the acknowledged master of this. Much of NLP and Ross Jeffries' work is derived from Milton's understanding of the phenomenon of hypnosis.

Uncommon Therapy is probably the best book to read on Dr. Erickson. The collected volumes of conversation are also fun to skim through but I wouldn' t recommend buying them if your interest is casual.
posted by BigSky at 8:39 PM on October 10, 2006

I have a habbit of talking in my sleep, my girlfriend has taken in it stride, and it doesn't really freak her out anymore. Last night I was talking in my sleep but she couldn't understand what I was trying to say so she just said "Titties" which made me laugh and then I went back to being quiet.

So there's a small bit of manipulation on a micro scale for you.
posted by splatta at 8:49 PM on October 10, 2006 [1 favorite]

I was in bed sleeping with a friend, well she was asleep, I looked into her face and 'thought' her name.She opened her eyes and said "don't, ever do that again".
posted by hortense at 9:22 PM on October 10, 2006 [2 favorites]

I think the answer is no.
posted by Ironmouth at 10:35 PM on October 10, 2006

Does the subconscious even exist? It's not like Freud was a master empiricist.
posted by delmoi at 12:10 AM on October 11, 2006

Freud talked about the unconscious, not the subconscious. (And yes, it exists.)
posted by OmieWise at 5:20 AM on October 11, 2006

One technique that is used is to talk to someone in a monologue about something, and gradually switch the vocal emphasis away from nouns and verbs onto words like "the" and "or" while adopting flat and sing-song cadences.

Done well this causes the listener to still attend to your words, but to zone out on following the content. Then slip in and repeat the highly charged words you are trying to implant.
posted by StickyCarpet at 5:38 AM on October 11, 2006

There is quite a lot of interesting material in the magic and mentalism literature about subconscious suggestion and manipulation. The work of Kenton Knepper, Derren Brown and Luke Jermay would be of interest here. I would especially reccommend Kenton's Wonder Words, which, while it is certainly meant for magic performance, still talks about such things as unspecified referential indexes, embedded commands, shifting reference, double binds, negative questions, and tons of other material that you could use in more generic settings. A number of concepts tie with NLP techniques, although this is no NLP training course in any sense.

Going away from magic, you could do worse than getting some materials on persuasion and marketing. There are a number of techniques that are based on influencing the subconscious. I enjoyed Kenrick Cleveland's Maximum Persuasion tapes, he might have some other good ones out there.

As for NLP, I'm not a believer, although I think some techniques or concepts can be useful. As a whole, I would have to go through formal training to see if it's for me or not, and I'm not about to shell out that money just for kicks. Home study might be ok, but then if it doesn't work they can just say it's because you have no formal training, right?
posted by splice at 6:02 AM on October 11, 2006

I found Influence: Science and Practice, to be a wonderful read. The author describes the different ways we are influenced by others and the results of tons of experiments in the area. Quite telling was the different ways requests could be phrased that increased the likelihood of compliance. Speaking as complete amateur in terms of the social sciences, I found it enligtening as well as interesting at the same time.
posted by mmascolino at 8:55 AM on October 11, 2006

Does the subconscious even exist?

I honestly cannot even imagine what you think you mean by this. Do you believe you fully articulate and rationally categorize every single feeling, inclination, impulse, desire, interest etc that you have? All before you even actually engage with the things these are responses to? Reason is the top layer of the mind, not its source...
posted by mdn at 11:32 AM on October 11, 2006

Seconding that you should read Influence. Also, for a nice overview of what modern psychology has to say about unconscious thinking, check out Tim Wilson's "Strangers to Ourselves."
posted by myeviltwin at 4:26 PM on October 11, 2006