From the course: Working with Difficult People (2017)

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Control dramas

Control dramas

From the course: Working with Difficult People (2017)

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Control dramas

- The final way of looking at bad behavior that I want to share with you is a fascinating little theory that I discovered in a book called The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield. Among the many great ideas in this book is the concept that we have ways of stealing energy from each other, which Redfield calls control dramas. He says there are four, which are called the intimidator, the interrogator, the aloof, and poor me. The most aggressive one is the intimidator, who steals energy from other people by dominating them and making them feel inferior, either with physical or verbal aggression. So the intimidator gets to feel better and the other people feel worse. This is similar to being aggressive, which we've talked about already. Next is the interrogator who gets to feel good by asking questions that are borderline aggressive, certainly they're aimed at making the other person feel small, so that the interrogator can feel superior to them. Questions like have you thought about…

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