The Art of Seduction

Produktbeschreibung

From the author of the multi-million copy bestseller The 48 Laws of Power and The Laws of Human Nature, a mesmerizing handbook on seduction: the most subtle and effective form of power

When raised to the level of art, seduction, an indirect and subtle form of power, has toppled empires, won elections and enslaved great minds. Immerse yourself in the twenty-four maneuvers and strategies of the seductive process, the ritual by which a seducer gains mastery over his target. Understand how to "Poeticize Your Presence," "Keep them in Suspense - What Comes Next" and "Master the Art of the Bold Move". Every bit as essential as The 48 Laws of Power, The Art of Seduction is an indispensable primer of persuasion that reveals one of history's greatest weapons and the ultimate form of power. 

Inhaltsverzeichnis

The Art of SeductionAcknowledgments
Preface
Part One: The Seductive Character

The Siren
A man is often secretly oppressed by the role he has to play - by always having
to be responsible, in control, and rational. The Siren is the ultimate male
fantasy figure because she offers a total release from the limitations of his
life. In her presence, which is always heightened and sexually charged, the male
feels transported to a realm of pure pleasure. In a world where women are often
too timid to project such an image, learn to take control of the male libido by
embodying his fantasy.

The Rake
A woman never quite feels desired and appreciated enough. She wants attention,
but a man is too often distracted and unresponsive. The Rake is a great female
fantasy-figure - when he desires a woman, brief though that moment may be, he
will go to the ends of the earth for her. He may be disloyal, dishonest, and
amoral, but that only adds to his appeal. Stir a woman's repressed longing by
adapting the Rake's mix of danger and pleasure.

The Ideal Lover
Most people have dreams in their youth that get shattered or worn down with age.
They find themselves disappointed by people, events, reality, which cannot match
their youthful ideals. Ideal Lovers thrive on people's broken dreams, which
become lifelong fantasies. You long for romance? Adventure? Lofty spiritual
communioin? The Ideal Lover reflects your fantasy. He or she is an artist in
creating the illusion you require. In a world of disenchantment and baseness,
there is limitless seductive power in following the path of the Ideal Lover.

The Dandy
Most of us feel trapped within the limited role that the world expects us to
play. We are instantly attracted to those who are more fluid than we are - those
who create their own persona. Dandies excite us because they cannot be
categorized, and hint at a freedom we want for ourselves. They play with
masculinity and femininity; they fashion their own physical image, which is
always startling. Use the power of the Dandy to create an ambiguous, alluring
presence that stirs repressed desires.

The Natural
Childhood is the golden paradise we are always consciously or unconsciously
trying to re-create. The Natural embodies the longed-for qualities of childhood
- spontaneity, sincerity, unpretentiousness. In the presence of Naturals, we
feel at ease, caught up in their playful spirit, transported back to that golden
age. Adopt the pose of the Natural to neutralize people's defensivenss and
infect them with helpless delight.

The Coquette
The ability to delay satisfaction is the ultimate art of seducction - while
waiting, the victim is held in thrall. Coquettes are the grand masters of the
game, orchestrating a back-and-forth movement between hope and frustration. They
bait with the promise of reward - the hope of physical pleasure, happiness, fame
by association, power - all of which, however, proves elusive; yet this only
makes their targets pursue them the more. Imitate the alternating heat and
coolness of the Coquette and you will keep the seduced at your heels.

The Charmer
Charm is seduction without sex. Charmers are consummate manipulators, masking
their cleverness by creating a mood of pleasure and comfort. Their method is
simple: They deflect attention from themselves and focus it on their target.
They understand your spirit, feel your pain, adapt to your moods. In the
presence of a Charmer you feel better about yourself. Learn to cast the
Charmer's spell by aiming at people's primary weaknesses: vanity and
self-esteem.

The Charismatic
Charisma is a presence that excites us. It comes from an inner quality -
self-confidence, sexual energy, sense of purpose, contentment - that most people
lack and want. This quality radiates outward, permeating the gestures of
Charismatics, making them seem extraordinary and superior. They learn to
heighten their charisma with a piercing gaze, fiery oratory, an air of mystery.
Create the charismatic illusion by radiating intensity while remaining detached.

The Star
Daily life is harsh, and most of us constantly seek escape from it in fantasies
and dreams. Stars feed on this weakness; standing out from others through a
distinctive and appealing style, they make us want to watch them. At the same
time, they are vague and ethereal, keeping their distance, and letting us
imagine more than is there. Their dreamlike quality works on our unconscious.
Learn to become an object of fascination by projecting the glittering but
elusive presence of the Star.

The Anti-Seducer
Seducers draw you in by the focused, individualized attention they pay to you.
Anti-seducers are the opposite: insecure, self-absorbed, and unable to grasp the
psychology of another person, they literally repel. Anti-Seducers have no
self-awareness, and never realize when they are pestering, imposing, talking too
much. Root out anti-seductive qualities in yourself, and recognize them in
others - there is no pleasure or profit in dealing with the Anti-Seducer.

The Seducer's Victims - The Eighteen Types

Part Two: The Seductive Process
PHASE ONE: SEPARATION - STIRRING INTEREST AND DESIRE

1. Choose the Right Victim
Everything depends on the target of your seduction. Study your prey throughly,
and choose only those who will prove susceptible to your charms. The right
victims are those for whom you can fill a void, who see in you something exotic.
They are often isolated or unhappy, or can easily be made so - for the
completely contented person is almost impossible to seduce. The perfect victim
has some quality that inspires strong emotions in you, making your seductive
manuevers seem more natural and dynamic. The perfect victim allows for the
perfect chase.

2. Create a False Sense of Security - Approach Indirectly
If you are too direct early on, you risk stirring up a resistance that will
never be lowered. At first there must be nothing of the seducer in your manner.
The seduction should begin at an angle, indirectly, so that the target only
gradually becomes aware of you. Haunt the periphery of your target's life -
approach through a third party, or seem to cultivate a relatively neutral
relationship, moving gradually from friend to lover. Lull the target into
feeling secure, then strike.

3. Send Mixed Signals
Once people are aware of your presence, and perhaps vaguely intrigued, you need
to stir their interest before it settles on someone else. Most of us are much
too obvious - instead, be hard to figure out. Send mixed signals: both tough and
tender, both spiritual and earthly, both innocent and cunning. A mix of
qualities suggests depth, which fascinates even as it confuses. An elusive,
enigmatic aura will make people want to know more, drawing them into your
circle. Create such a power by hinting at something contraditory within you.

4. Appear to Be an Object of Desire - Create Triangles
Few are drawn to the person whom others avoid or neglect; people gather around
those who have already attracted interest. To draw your victims closer and make
them hungry to possess you, you must create an aura of desirability - of being
wanted and courted by many. It will become a point of vanity for them to be the
preferred object of your attention, to win you away from a crowd of admirers.
Build a reputation that precedes you: If many have succumbed to your charms,
there must be a reason.

5. Create a Need - Stir Anxiety and Discontent
A perfectly satisfied person cannot be seduced. Tension and disharmony must be
instilled in your targets' minds. Stir within them feelings of discontent, an
unhappiness with their circumstances and with themselves. The feelings of
inadequacy that you create will give you space to insinuate yourself, to make
them see you as the answer to their problems. Pain and anxiety are the proper
precursors to pleasure. Learn to manufacture the need that you can fill.

6. Master the Art of Insinuation
Making your targets feel dissatisfied and in need of your attention is
essential, but if you are too obvious, they will see through you and grow
defensive. There is no known defense, however, against insinuation - the art of
planting ideas in people's minds by dropping elusive hints that take root days
later, even appearing to them as their own idea. Create a sublanguage - bold
statements followed by retraction and apology, ambiguous comments, banal talk
combined with alluring glances - that enters the target's unconscious to convey
your real meaning. Make everything suggestive.

7. Enter Their Spirit
Most people are locked in their own worlds, making them stubborn and hard to
persuade. The way to lure them out of their shell and set up your seduction is
to enter their spirit. Play by their rules, enjoy what they enjoy, adapt
yourself to their moods. In doing so you will stroke their deep-rooted
narcissism and lower their defenses. Indulge your targets' every mood and whim,
giving them nothing to react against or resist.8. Create Temptation
Lure the target deep into your seduction by creating the proper temptation: a
glimpse of the pleasures to come. As the serpent tempted Eve with the promise of
forbidden knowledge, you must awaken a desire in your targets that they cannot
control. Find that weakness of theirs, that fantasy that has yet to be realized,
and hint that you can lead them toward it. The key is to keep it vague.
Stimulate a curiosity stronger than the doubts and anxieties that go with it,
and they will follow you.PHASE TWO: LEAD ASTRAY - CREATING PLEASURE AND
CONFUSION
9. Keep Them in Suspense - What Comes Next?
The moment people feel they know what to expect from you, your spell on them is
broken. More: You have ceded them power. The only way to lead the seduced along
and keep the upper hand is to create suspense, a calculated surprise. Doing
something they do not expect from you will give them a delightful sense of
spontaneity - they will not be able to foresee what comes next. You are always
one step ahead and in control. Give the victim a thrill with a sudden change of
direction.10. Use the Demonic Power of Words to Sow Confusion
It is hard to make people listen; they are consumed with their own thoughts and
desires, and have little time for yours. The trick to making them listen is to
say what they want to hear, to fill their ears with whatever is pleasant to
them. This is the essence of seductive language. Inflame people's emotions with
loaded phrses, flatter them, comfort their insecurities, envelop them in sweet
words and promises, and not only will they listen to you, they will lose their
will to resist you.11. Pay Attention to Detail
Lofty words of love and grand gestures can be suspicious: Why are you trying so
hard to please? The details of a seduction - the subtle gestures, the offhand
things you do - are often more charming and revealing. You must learn to
distract your victims with a myriad of pleasant little rituals - thoughtful
gifts tailored just for them, clothes and adornments designed to please them,
gestures that show the time and attention you are paying them. Mesmerized by
what they see, they will not notice what you are really up to.12. Poeticize Your
Presence
Important things happen when your targets are alone: The slightest feeling of
relief that you are not there, and it is all over. Familiarity and overexposure
will cause this reaction. Remain elusive, then. Intrigue your targets by
alternating an exciting presence with a cool distance, exuberant moments
followed by calculated absences. Associate yourself with poetic images and
objects, so that when they think of you, they begin to see you through an
idealized halo. The more you figure in their minds, the more they will envelop
you in seductive fantasies.13. Disarm Through Strategic Weakness and
Vulnerability
Too much manuevering on your part may raise suspicion. The best way to cover
your tracks is to make the other person feel superior and stronger. If you seem
to be weak, vulnerable, enthralled by the other person, and unable to control
yourself, you will make your actions look more natural, less calculated.
Physical weakness - tears, bashfulness, paleness - will help create the effect.
Play the victim, then transform your target's sympathy into love.14. Confuse
Desire and Reality - The Perfect Illusion
To compensate for the difficulties in their lives, people spend a lot of their
time daydreaming, imagining a future full of adventure, success, and romance. If
you can create the illusion that through you they can live out their dreams, you
will have them at your mercy. Aim at secret wishes that have been thwarted or
repressed, stirring up uncontrollable emotions, clouding their powers of reason.
Lead the seduced to a point of confusion in which they can no longer tell the
difference between illusion and reality.15. Isolate the Victim
An isolated person is weak. By slowly isolating your victims, you make them more
vulnerable to your influence. Take them away from their normal milieu, friends,
family, home. Give them the sense of being marginalized, in limbo - they are
leaving one world behind and entering another. Once isolated like this, they
have no outside support, and in their confusion they are easily led astray. Lure
the seduced into your lair, where nothing is familiar.PHASE THREE: THE PRECIPICE
- DEEPENING THE EFFECT THROUGH EXTREME MEASURES
16. Prove Yourself
Most people want to be seduced. If they resist your efforts, it is probably
because you have not gone far enough to allay their doubts - about your motives,
the depth of your feelings, and so on. One well-timed action that shows how far
you are willing to go to win them over will dispel their doubts. Do not worry
about looking foolish or making a mistake - any kind of deed that is
self-sacrificing and for your targets' sake will so overwhelm their emotions,
they won't notice anything else.17. Effect a Regression
People who have experienced a certain kind of pleasure in the past will try to
repeat or relive it. The deepest-rooted and most pleasurable memories are
usually those from earliest childhood, and are often unconsciously associated
with a parental figure. Bring your targets back to that point by placing
yourself in the oedipal triangle and positioning them as the needy child.
Unaware of the cause of their emotional response, they will fall in love with
you.18. Stir Up the Transgressive and Taboo
There are alway social limits on what one can do. Some of these, the most
elemental taboos, go back centuries; others are more superficial, simply
defining polite and acceptable behavior. Making your targets feel that you are
leading them past either kind of limit is immensely seductive. People yearn to
explore their dark side. Once the desire to transgress draws your targets to
you, it will be hard for them to stop. Take them farther than they imagined -
the shared feeling of guilt and complicity will create a powerful bond.19. Use
Spiritual Lures
Everyone has doubts and insecurities - about their body, their self-worth, their
sexuality. If your seduction appeals exclusively to the physical, you will stir
up these doubts and make your targets self-conscious. Instead, lure them out of
their insecurities by making them focus on something sublime and spiritual: a
religious experience, a lofty work of art, the occult. Lost in a spiritual mist,
the target will feel light and uninhibited. Deepen the effect of your seduction
by making its sexual culmination seem like the spiritual union of two souls.20.
Mix Pleasure with Pain
The greatest mistake in seduction is being too nice. At first, perhaps, your
kindness is charming, but it soon grows monotonous; you are trying too hard to
please, and seem insecure. Instead of overwhelming your targets with niceness,
try inflicting some pain. Make them feel guilty and insecure. Instigate a
breakup - now a rapprochement, a return to your earlier kindness, will turn them
weak at the knees. The lower the lows you create, the greater the highs. To
heighten the erotic charge, create the excitement of fear.PHASE FOUR: MOVING IN
FOR THE KILL
21. Give Them Space to Fall - The Pursuer Is Pursued
If your targets become too used to you as the aggressor, they will give less of
their own energy, and the tension will slacken. You need to wake them up, turn
the tables. Once they are under your spell, take a step back and they will start
to come after you. Hint that you are growing bored. Seem interested in someone
else. Soon they will want to possess you physically, and restraint will go out
the window. Create the illusion that the seducer is being seduced.22. Use
Physical Lures
Targets with active minds are dangerous: If they see through your manipulations,
they may suddenly develop doubts. Put their minds gently to rest, and waken
their dormant senses, by combining a nondefensive attitude with a charged sexual
presence. While your cool, nonchalant air is lowering their inhibitions, your
glances, voice, and bearing - oozing sex and desire - are getting under their
skin and raising their temperature. Never force the physical; instead inflect
your targets with heat, lure them into lust. Morality, judgment, and concern for
the future will all melt away.23. Master the Art of the Bold Move
A moment has arrived: Your victim clearly desires you, but is not ready to admit
it openly, let alone act on it. This is the time to throw aside chivalry,
kindness and coquetry and to overwhelm with a bold move. Don't give the victim
time to consider the consequences. Showing hesitation or awkwardness means you
are thinking of yourself, as opposed to being overwhelmed by the victim's
charms. One person must go on the offensive, and it is you.24. Beware the
Aftereffects
Danger follows in the aftermath of a successful seduction. After emotions have
reached a pitch, they often swing in the opposite direction - toward lassitude,
distrust, disappointment. If you are to part, make the sacrifice swift and
sudden. If you are to stay in a relationship, beware a flagging of energy, a
creeping familiarity that will spoil the fantasy. A second seduction is
required. Never let the other person take you for granted - use absence, create
pain and conflict, to keep the seduced on tenterhooks.

Appendix A: Seductive Environment/Seductive Time
Appendix B: Soft Seduction: How to Sell Anything to the Masses
Selected Bibliography
Index 

Kritik

Praise for Robert Greene

Compelling. Forbes

Greene s specialty is analyzing the lives and philosophies of historical figures like Sun Tzu and Napoleon, and extracting from them tips on how to manipulate people and situations a cutthroat worldview that has earned him a devoted following among a like-minded readership of rappers, drug dealers and corporate executives. The New York Times

"Illuminating. The Guardian

Machiavelli has a new rival. And Sun Tzu had better watch his back. Greene . . . has put together a checklist of ambitious behavior. Just reading the table of contents is enough to stir a little corner-office lust. New York magazine

Beguiling . . . literate . . . fascinating. A wry primer for people who desperately want to be on top. People magazine

An heir to Machiavelli s Prince . . . gentler souls will find this book frightening, those whose moral compass is oriented solely to power will have a perfect vade mecum. Publishers Weekly 

Autoreninfo

Robert Greene, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The 48 Laws of Power, The 33 Strategies of War, The Art of Seduction, Mastery, and The Laws of Human Nature, is an internationally renowned expert on power strategies. He lives in Los Angeles.

Joost Elffers is the packaging genius behind Viking Studio's Secret Language series, Play with Your Food, and How Are You Peeling? He lives in New York City.