Social Isolation Strategies

Elimination of support networks to increase dependency.

Isolation is the preparatory step to total control. A manipulator knows that a victim with a strong support network (friends, family, colleagues) is difficult to abuse, as they have outside perspectives that can validate their reality and offer help.

Therefore, the strategic goal is to systematically sever these ties, closing off the victim's emotional and physical escape routes.

By eliminating external resources, the manipulator becomes the victim's only source of reality, affection and support.

This exponentially increases dependency; the person feels that he or she "has no one else" and that his or her emotional or professional survival depends exclusively on pleasing the manipulator.

In coercive environments such as cults or abusive relationships, this process is fundamental for subsequent techniques, such as gaslighting, to work without external interference.

"Divide and conquer": sowing conflict between the victim and his or her environment.

To achieve isolation without appearing overtly authoritarian, the manipulator employs the "divide and conquer" tactic.

First, he meticulously studies the dynamics of the victim's relationships to identify pre-existing cracks or tensions.

Then, he acts as an agent provocateur, rekindling old conflicts or sowing distrust.

It may subtly suggest that a family member does not want the best for the victim or that friends are criticizing her behind her back. In the workplace, this translates into selective defamation.

The manipulator may speak ill of the victim behind her back in order to damage her reputation, causing colleagues to distance themselves or stop supporting her.

At the same time, he may convince the victim that his colleagues are against him.

This double game creates a wall of incommunicado communication, leaving the person alone and vulnerable to the demands of the aggressor, who often falsely presents himself as her only