Emotional Vampires

Since ancient times, Vampire legends have had a powerful hold on the human imagination. This fascination continues today with the popularity of Bram Stokers Dracula, New vampire books and movies, and pop cultural phenomena. Daniel Rhodes and Kathleen Rhodes, D.N.Sc. believe that very real vampires are stalking their prey from the shadows – not the mythical bloodsuckers of folklore fame, but emotional vampires who deliberately drain others psychologically.

Emotional Vampires are individuals we deal with in daily life who leave us feeling abnormally angry, confused, upset, or fatigued. These manipulative psychological leeches may be total strangers or our best friends, co-workers, or family members. By controlling situations and people for their own purposes, they prey upon their victims with deliberate aim of stealing emotional energy – just like mythical vampires. Many of these predators know exactly how much frustration, anger and anxiety they inflict, while others carry on virtually unaware of the damage they cause, and victims are many times unaware that they are being bled. These Vampire attacks may be one-time interactions, or they could go on for years. They can range from just being emotionally troublesome to threatening careers, mental health, and even the lives of their victims.

Often, emotional vampires use a clever set of techniques:

•Task – blocking: Have you ever worked on an important project with a co-worker who prevents you from finishing the task and then blames you?

•Turnaround: Have you ever complained about a poor product or service only to have a clerk rudely abuse you?

•Vectors: Have you ever felt fear from being tailgated or cut off by another driver, or anger at a difficult neighbor who seems to enjoy disturbing your pace with his barking dog or loud stereo?

•The vampire signature: After having a run-in with one of these predators, has he or she shown you by a smirk or a smart remark that you’ve been had.

Illustrated fascinating personal stories from victims, this insightful work identifies and classifies emotional predators, exposes the methods they use, describes the collective “vampirism” of groups, and offers ways to combat the effects of an emotional attack.