"If you really loved me..."

"After all I've done for you..."

"How can you be so selfish..."

Do any of the above sound familiar? They're all examples of emotional blackmail, a powerful form of manipulation in which people close to us threaten to punish us for not doing what they want. Emotional blackmailers know how much we value our relationships with them. They know our vulnerabilities and our deepest secrets. They are our mothers, our partners, our bosses and coworkers, our friends and our lovers. And no matter how much they care about us, they use this intimate knowledge to give themselves the payoff they want: our compliance.

Susan Forward knows what pushes our hot buttons. Just as John Gray illuminates the communications gap between the sexes in Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, and Harriet Lerner describes an intricate dynamic in The Dance of Anger, so Susan Forward presents the anatomy of a relationship damaged by manipulation, and gives readers an arsenal of tools to fight back. In her clear, no-nonsense style, Forward provides powerful, practical strategies for blackmail targets, including checklists, practice scenarios and concrete communications techniques that will strengthen relationships and break the blackmail cycle for good.

蘇珊·福沃德是美國著名心理治療師，同時也是一名暢銷書作者和演講傢，經常作為嘉賓齣席脫口秀，並在美國廣播公司主持一檔麵嚮全美播音的節目。除洛杉磯的私人門診外，她也在南加州諸多心理與醫療機構擔任谘詢師。她的作品《恨女人的男人們和愛他們的女人》（Men Who Hate Wo men and the Women Who Love Them）與《原生傢庭》（Toxic Parents）曾登上《紐約時報》暢銷書榜首。