A “coercive feeling”  is one which places a burden, (blame for the feeling) on the other person, for example: “You make me feel guilty.”  Feelings which can be used for coercive purposes include: Tears, Rage, Anger, Guilt, Desperation, Anxiety, Helpless, Tired, Confused, Scared, and Hurt.  Eric Berne M.D. called coercive feelings “rackets.” This paper describes how to understand, diagram, and handle psychological rackets, i.e. emotional blackmail, coercive feelings. 

A psychological racket is a repetitively displayed, coercive emotion with fraudulent and intimidating qualities which is designed to bring about the outward consent of the other person. A racket may be defined phenomenologically, operationally, and pragmatically. 

Phenomenologically a psychological racket is better termed as a coercive feeling. 

Operationally a psychological racket is a repetitive emotional display lacking authenticity which also prevents emotional displays by other parties in the vicinity, victimizing the recipient (victim) and restricting the responder’s choices to either inaction or avoidance. 

Pragmatically a psychological racket is the display of a coercive emotion which places a burden on the party at whom it is directed. 

 

Social encounters progress through a series of transactions. They are concluded by one of the four methods of resolving social encounters:

1) Get-Away-From (GAF) which results from concluding the particular encounter with I Am Not-OK and You Are OK;

2) Get-On-With (GOW) which results from the encounter concluding with I Am OK and You Are OK; 

3) Get-Nowhere-With (GNW) which comes from concluding a social event with I Am Not-OK and You Are Not-OK;  or

4) Get-Rid-Of (GRO) which comes from closing an encounter with an I Am OK and You Are Not-OK. 

 

When a social encounter concludes with I am not OK and you are OK the social dynamic (movement) is that of I Get-Away-From You (GAF).

 When a social encounter concludes with I am OK and you are OK the social dynamic (movement) is that of I Get-On-With You (GOW).

 When a social encounter concludes with I am not OK and you are not OK the social dynamic (movement) is that of I Get-Nowhere-With You (GNW).

 When a social encounter concludes with I am OK and you are not OK the social dynamic (movement) is that of I Get-Rid-Of You (GRO).

        The key element of the OK Corral is that it describes: the dynamics, the (physical) movement or non-movement of the parties which result from the forces (“OK/Not OK”) at play between the parties at the conclusion of a particular social encounter.

 

“Emotional blackmail” is another term for psychological racketeers, for example “Who else do you blackmail with tears?" One favorite tactic of racketeers is to say:  “Are you accusing me of . . .  ?”  as a basis for the initiation of their racket. The responder can readily deal with this kind of blackmailer by asking: "Oh, are you accusing me of accusing you of ..." 

The elements of threat, intimidation and coercion to force compliance from the other person, are the heart of psychological blackmail, rackets, and coercive feelings.

 

Summary  of  the  Coercive Feelings (Rackets) of Racketeers:

1)   The TEARS racket is to tyrannize the victim.

2)   The RAGE racket is to flush out uncontrollable rage in the quarry.

3)   The ANGER racket is to provoke a show of burning anger back from the other party which is then his to control or not (a game switch?).

4)   The GUILTY racket is to send the prey scurrying to his own fault vault.

5)   The DESPERATION racket is to shatter the calm of the other person.

6)   The ANXIETY racket is to stimulate apprehension in the respondent.

7)   The HELPLESS racket is to render the other person impotent.

8)   The TIRED racket is to fatigue and wear out the other party.

9)   The CONFUSED racket is to bewilder the companion.

10) The SCARED racket is to frighten the other party.

11) The HURT FEELINGS racket is to ruin the other person’s day.