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StoicIncidentally, although there are an infinite variety of con games and tricks, as well as an infinite variety of con men and women, the dynamic behind the operation of the trick is always the same:
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en.wikipedia.org]
"Confidence tricks exploit typical human qualities such as greed, dishonesty, vanity, honesty, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility and naïveté. The common factor is that the mark relies on the good faith of the con artist."
A really good conman will have a repertoire of manipulations to deal with whatever qualities the mark presents him with. Good conmen like all good professionals work hard at polishing and adding to their skills, the objective is to establish the marks trust and confidence in the perpetrator. Most conmen are constantly reading people to establish which approach to take with which mark.
Which is why in attempting to protect yourself from the myriad cons abroad in the world you are far better off learning to understand and control yourself rather than attempting to understand and control the conmen.
Obviously I disagree with this. Knowledge is power, and power is itself a form of protection. It's important to understand other people, even bad people, and to learn what motivates them. It's possible to learn about exploiters without excusing or minimizing their behavior. And while I certainly like Wikipedia, I'm not sure it's the best source of psychological guidance.
I strongly recommend books like "Snakes in Suits", by Robert Hare, "The Sociopath Next Door", by Martha Stout, and Herve Cleckley's "The Mask of Sanity". All of these books give valuable insights into the minds of people who become scammers, conmen, and cult leaders.
Also, books about various cult leaders, such as the ones about L. Ron Hubbard, Andrew Cohen, John-Roger, and Werner Erhard, are extremely enlightening. And for the anatomy of a recent scam, both the books and the documentaries about the Enron fiasco are superb. Much of the information in these books can provide insight to anyone who's recovering from a cultic experience, and insight was an important part of my healing and moving on.
If you are in a place in your recovery where learning about your exploiter leads you to sympathize with him, excuse him, minimize yourself, or lose focus on your own process, information about his/her psychopathology probably wouldn't help, and might well hurt. I trust people to make those determinations on their own. But I'm convinced, and know from personal experience, that understanding everything about a cultic experience, including as much as possible about the psychology of the guru and his/her motivations, can be extremely helpful.