Dark Psychology - Tony Bennis

Dark psychology studies the parts of ourselves that none of us want to recognize. Within this field, our innermost demons are delved into, and a light is shone on the places that we would rather not see but need to see. Dark psychology accepts and embraces the darker side of the human experience. In this way it is doing the same as any area of anthropocentric study does, the only difference lying in dark psychology’s specialty of this dark reality within the human animal. Dark psychology is not meant to be a pageant of villains, however. Specialists within this field do their work in order to better understand why and how malevolent people work toward their ends, not out of some attempt to gain fame for themselves and or to idolize the more monstrous among us. It is also important to keep in mind that each and every one of us has a dark or “evil” side of our own psychology. While there are some other conduits by which we can reach the realization of this side’s contents, it is dark psychology that provides the clearest route for us in our way toward our enlightenment concerning how dark we truly are and why. 

Within this book the following areas are covered with the aim to illuminate their significances in our everyday lives: the principles of dark psychology, “dark personality” traits, studies of dark psychology, mind reading, cognitive psychology, modes of persuasion, controlling emotions, and social engineering and leadership. 

When most people think of the term “dark psychology” they go over the issues of Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sociopathy in their minds. These are what are known as dark personality traits and are a mere microcosm of the field’s overall outreach. These traits are important ones to study as we are all likely to know people who display, with some of us displaying them ourselves. This is just one area of dark psychology that is covered in depth within this book. 

Mind reading, and modes of persuasion are two other areas delved into here. Virtually anyone can benefit greatly from studying these two areas, so here some useful tips and techniques regarding how to read what others are thinking and how to persuade them to work towards our ends are also included, among many other things.