In her book, Emotional Blackmail: When the People in Your Life Use Fear, Obligation, and Guilt to Manipulate You, Susan Forward writes, “Emotional blackmail is a powerful form of manipulation in which people close to us threaten to punish us for not doing what they want… This book offers a method to break this cycle for good by giving blackmail targets the tools they need and steps they can take.”
Susan Forward’s web site: SusanForward.com
In her book, The Emotionally Abusive Relationship, Beverly Engel writes, “Emotional blackmail is one of the most powerful forms of manipulation. It occurs when one partner either consciously or unconsciously coerces the other into doing what he wants by playing on his partner’s fear, guilt, or compassion.”
Beverly Engel is an MFCT (Marriage, Family, Child Therapist), psychotherapist, and author of eighteen self-help books, including Healing Your Emotional Self, Honor Your Anger, and The Emotionally Abusive Relationship.
In her review of Engel’s book, Healing Your Emotional Self, Joyce Catlett, coauthor of Fear of Intimacy, wrote, “As adults, many of us are still limited by the defenses we formed when trying to protect ourselves in the face of the painful circumstances we found ourselves in as children. Engel’s insightful questionnaires and exercises provide concrete help in the healing process.”
Beverly Engel’s web site: BeverlyEngel.com
“Healing Your Emotional Self” by Beverly Engel describes “Mirror Therapy as it applies to raising your self-esteem, improving your self-image (including your body image), quieting your inner critic, and healing your shame.”
The book, published in 2007, includes a step-by-step program for developing personal skills for self-help emotional healing.