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Abstract

Rather than being ajustification for treatment termination, manipulation is a psychological defense which plays an essential identity-stabilizing role in the psychic economy of antisocial personalities. As a psychological defense, manipulation is interpretable, revealing the point offixation and the infantile object relations that remain pathologically activated in adulthood. It issuggested that the defense of manipulation emerges to compensateforfailure to complete essential identity-affirming steps in the separation-individuation process. It is suggested that two types of antisocial personality"primitive" borderline and "narcissistic"-manifest distinct manipulative styles. Put simply, failure to complete specific essential steps in the identity-formation process results in specific forms of distrust in self and others, leaving manipulative styles in place of normalfeelings and expressions of confidence, respect, and mutuality.

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The Role of Manipulation in the Antisocial Personality

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