Triangle Games: An American journey through the emotional landmines of Narcissism, Politics & Media

by Jay Houston

This is book 1 of 4 in a series on Emotional Intelligence. It dives into the triangle of emotional manipulation, politics, and our media. Narcissism can have a profound effect on a multitude of societal levels. Family life, business-environments and social relationships are three examples. My attempts to put a decades-long association with an emotional manipulator into my rear-view mirror were constantly interrupted weekly, if not daily, by the nature and behavior of the omnipresent Donald Trump. It was downright creepy how much Trump’s reactions to certain situations would be just like the reactions I would expect from the narcissist I knew (shoutout to Joseph Burgo). From those creepy personality coincidences, my curiosity advanced from reading blogs and social media posts to heavy academic-level research. These findings gave me complete lucidity on my social run-ins with my emotional manipulator as well as full 20/20 vision on Narcissism, Gaslighting, Triangulation and other terms we’ll discuss that I had “heard of”, but couldn’t clearly define until now.Further curiosity-based exploration on our media gave me a 180-degree altered perspective on their role in our country. Previous to researching it, I couldn’t tell if the biased media was just have a free-for-all bashing (or apologizing for) Trump or if he was manipulating them. I get it now.Emotional Intelligence gives us tools to reach out, listen and comprehend those with strong, emotional ties to viewpoints different than ours. Any viewpoint. However, wading into the deep waters of our differing political ideologies is not for lite swimmers. Topics like these usually bring out the worst in us when we even attempt to broach the subject. But it’s a topic that matters. So let’s give it a shot. We’ll go over some of the key traits of Narcissism and traits within us that Narcissists exploit. We’ll take breaks from the psychology chapters by putting our mass media on trial in court, resplendent with scientifically historical celebrity luminaries. We’ll all pile into a big college lecture hall to try and learn how to talk to each other. Or how to listen to each other. Actually both. Sound good?Here’s to all the people who have suffered through emotional manipulators. Here’s to all those counseling individuals who are still struggling from narcissistic abuse. Here’s to all the citizens feeling frustrated regarding the emotional manipulation of our media. Here’s to all the folks who want to find a civil way to discuss our political differences. We’re all in this together. I hope we become the country we’re supposed to be. Cheers.

150 pages, Paperback

Published August 2, 2020