Here I describe another deeply "internalized" and constantly used technique by Miriam which, unlike the others, I had already observed in other categories of people who have little to do with the dark world.
I am referring to the characteristic of some people to always want to distract the person nearby to polarize all possible attention on themselves.
Previously, I had noticed this attitude quite frequently in categories of people such as politicians, managers, entrepreneurs, actors, and professional artists, and generally in people who considered themselves "leaders" of a certain community or environment.
For example: I remember a young entrepreneur who had founded a startup with innovative technologies in which I had been involved from the beginning as a technical manager (in fact, to tell the truth, I had collaborated as a consultant well before the foundation, studying and testing the technologies that were the basis of the company and devising methods for their integration).
This guy (because he WAS a guy) every time he entered a room or environment, he would start talking loudly about his personal issues and concerns, behaving like an actor performing a monologue in front of an audience, and there was no way to return to one's work agenda until he had moved to another place, even in "emergency" situations where urgent actions needed to be completed.
The general manager of that same startup, who had also had a significant political career with important positions in a large city, was no less, and the most devastating thing was to see them appear together in pleasant conversation, because since they competed to attract attention and enjoyed giving conflicting orders, they were able to completely block work activity within the startup.
I have seen Miriam apply this principle and polarize attention on herself on various occasions, but the one that makes me smile the most happened during a simple car trip with a third person, whom I will now call Alvise, to whom Miriam had simply asked for a ride.
When she started talking, teasing me, about personal things between me and her, I took the opportunity to speak directly with Alvise, in an attempt to establish a direct relationship (it's something I always do, if only out of genuine curiosity, I am convinced that every person has an interesting story to listen to).
As soon as she realized that Alvise and I had started our "rapport" and were talking about topics not proposed by her, Miriam began to interrupt the conversation, initially using every possible contingent excuse, like the need for silence while flooding the ether with voice messages or while having phone conversations of dubious utility, then denying every single statement of the dialogue between me and Alvise, and finally speaking directly into the ear of one and the other about other things.
As in Chapter 2, I will quote Bminus for another style of application of this technique, which is perhaps the most comical to see and devastating in its effects: Bminus, when one of his victims (that is, anyone around him) has a real and motivated urgency (like: I need to call my lawyer because he is going on vacation tomorrow and I just received a court communication, or: I need to go immediately to pick up my daughter because my wife can't and she will soon be out of school) He intervenes with every pretext to change the unfortunate person's program, and the greater the REAL urgency, the greater his insistence. He even takes the refusal as a personal issue, an offense!
The deep reasons for the technique have similarities with the previous chapters 3 and 4, but here the central point lies precisely in accustoming the victim's mind to consider their tormentor as a reference superior to ANYTHING else, hence Bminus's obsession with the real urgencies of the victims, the greater the urgency, the greater and deeper the psychological impact of opposing it.