Are people who are on welfare/Social Security psychic vampires?

Liu said:

Sure. But there seems to me to be much grey area between being the prototypical kinds of psychic vampire and self-responsible person you describe.
And so what I meant in my last post was that using techniques of psychic vampirism doesn't necessarily mean that one isn't working at getting more self-responsible and may even need using this to achieve that.

Click to expand...

Yes, there is a difference between using techniques that psychic vampires utilize and being a psychic vampire. But situations that might call for demand of using such techniques are realistically rare, and usually are better maintained by other means.

In my personal opinion, if you need to act like a psychic vampire to achieve something, even if you are responsible, it's probably out of your league in many ways and you'll need to work up to it. If you use the techniques (not behavior) honestly, on the other hand, you're more likely to succeed, especially if you're particularly selective about when to utilize the techniques. You can usually tell when someone is honest or just really good at summoning the fuzzy pity feeling just by looking at what they say and how, and their relationship with the people they're talking to.

Psychologically, it's a bit difficult to tell a lie you don't really believe in. Most psychic vampires lie poorly and talk in loops, and will persist until they get what they want or give up. But they understand that targeting emotions are key. Others might also know this, and use that key, but sparingly and with tact. So it's a fine line to walk, and one I tend to avoid if possible for many reasons. But you aren't wrong about the gray area, and admittedly sometimes you're going to be in that area even if you try to not utilize psychological techniques. It's just the way humans work, unfortunately.