The Thumbscrew

Find out each person's thumbscrew. This is the art of setting their wills
in action. It needs more skill than resolution. You must know where to get at
any one. Every volition has a special motive that varies according to taste.
All people idolize something; for some it is fame, for others self-interest, for
most it is pleasure. Skill consists in knowing these idols in order to bring
them into play. Know a person's mainspring of motive and you have as it were
the key to his will. Have resort to primary motives, which are not always the
highest but more often the lowest part of his nature because there are more
dispositions badly organized than well. First guess a person's ruling passion,
appeal to it with words, set it in motion by temptation, and you will always
checkmate his freedom of will. --Balthasar Gracian

I'm not an extrovert. I have to act because I can't express what I am feeling. I'm not someone who enjoys being on the stage in front of people. --Jessica Alba

Part 1

The most common types of emotions are:
1. Insecurity
2. Unhappiness

1. Everyone wants to actually be some one, and many of us want to be part of the herd. We want to be great, and we want to belong. For a very few, this is a reality, for most it is only a dream. If you can create a family group in which the person can belong to, or make the person feel great about themselves, the victim will drop it's guard. Flattery can be an effective way of person feel good about himself, but only if it is aimed at a weak point. You do not tell a professional actor that he is a great performer, it is obvious to him. Instead, find some sort of hobby that the person does, something on the side that is not known, and comment on that. The key is to not have your blocked out as noise, instead to penetrate your victims mental armor. Realize that you must not give out excessive compliments to people, or they will start to lose their meaning. Never satisfy there desire fully.

2. Remove the source of the discomfort, or become an outlet of happiness yourself. In some cases, there will be a stirrer, a friend of your victim, who makes your victim feel bad about himself because the friend is in a poor mood. We are easily swayed by one another's moods, in this case it may be best to get the victim away from the friend.

The others are Fear, Greed, and Lust. When you play on an emotion, you will find that the person can no longer think logically. The person is in the grip of an emotional state, the victim's judgment will be impaired, and in many cases will act childlike. This is a sign that you are getting to your victim.

Part 2

Once you see an emotion, then you must begin to direct the person to do whatever you will.

Learn to notice details. Details all speak of what a person is like on the inside. Simply being an observer is useful, or you can try something like making a joke at your victims expense to see how s/he reacts. Keep a watchful eye out for people who go out of there way for attention, like giving excess compliments in the hope of getting some back, over tipping the waiter, the way they dress, details and unconscious stuff is most important.

Controlling the victim:

Humans like free choice, but they also want to be limited enough so that they don't have a sea of options. People want to develop there own opinions on things, they just need to be nudged in a direction now and then. This part of the game is all about thinking through the victims eyes, and being a few steps ahead.

You can color the options, make one way look worse than the other. You do this by describing a set of options, but pointing out the flaws in one, and making the other seem like the better choice. When dealing with very indecisive people, you can take this to an extreme. Describe situations to provoke fear, subtly directing the person in whatever direction you will.

Peer pressure can be a simple but effective method of driving behavior. People will do things they normally wouldn't just to fit into the group. The more desirable it is to be in the group, the more they will try to conform to it.

The shrinking options can make someone jump on an option. Basically, you give the victim the feeling that if s/he doesn't act right now, then the options will be degraded to something worse. Advertising use's this a lot with "One time only! This won't last!" sales. You can probably find a lot of examples of this on TV and in magazines.

If you are looking to paralyze someone, then create two options that seem almost completely equal, and either way some sort of pain in will come them. There mind will be stuck and won't make a decision until the last minute; damned if you do, damned if you don't.

When you encounter someone who is directly resisting you, try reverse psychology. You say the opposite of whatever you want the person to do, and the person will do the opposite of what you said, which is what you want him to do.