Yes, it's called MANipulation for a reason. But not the one of your
joke. *MAN* refers to hand. It originated from manually changing
something physical. No harm here - only mastery.
The harm has entered when we enter the domain of psycholoby and we
try to *change* other people. The term did not originate in
application to living things working *on* living things.
Read the archives for lengthy discussion of this on the list. Why?
Because the dialogue surfaced much and settled nothing. This is one
of those words which is loaded with inference and emotive force but
has little agreement in its foundations, uses or resolutions. My
recommendation is to reject the word as one which obscures what we
are trying to talk about and talk more plainly about intentions and
processes that we are for or against.
-- Michael McMaster Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk