26 April 2021
In writing an Op Ed I chose to shine a light on the deliberate abuse of my friend during a dinner conversation. I used logos and pathos in order to provide factors which shaped the structure of my Op Ed. By appealing to emotion through pathos I was able to bring out an emotional response in the reader, regardless of my friends absence of emotional substance in conversation. By connecting pathos to logos, I am able to target a much broader audience and initiate a larger response. Through breaking down this argument by its key contributing factors of logos and pathos, I was able to pinpoint the problem with the situation and hopefully promote awareness of the issues surrounding people on the spectrum with regards to moral communication. While from an outward appearance it looked as if my friend had gone insane, I knew that this situation was not in his control. Upon further reflection I was able to notice that he was just a target of a much greater threat deeply rooted in dark psychology, and I wanted to convey that to the audience.
The main technique I used in my OpEd was pathos. I structured my argument by telling a personal story. The informal nature of my writing appeals to the idea of pathos by relating it to broader topics of mistreatment in the Autistic Community.
One example of logos in my OpEd was the use of the 1944 film Gaslight. After discussing this difficult situation I experienced, Professor Lois Agnew from Syracuse University recommended that I watch this film in order to comprehend the psychological complexities of the argument. I described how Charles Boyer took advantage of a young Ingrid Bergman during a time of weakness. Bergman, having just lost her Aunt to a murder, was completely helpless and emotionally distraught. Boyer played on this weakness as a tool to seduce her into marrying him preemptively. I related this example to the story of Sal and Kevin by logically pointing out similarities between Charles and Sal with the goal of helping the audience to understand how Sal was using gaslighting to control the perceived reality of the situation. By including the example of the 1944 film Gaslight, I was able to reference a technique credited by the title of this film. Since gaslighting is an established term used by doctors and psychological professionals, explaining Sal’s use of gaslighting helped strengthen my argument using logos. Since Gaslight is a movie that tells an emotional story I am also using pathos to appeal to their emotions and values.
This idea of manipulating people for their money is not a new problem we have been facing as Kanye West has dedicated a song, Gold Digger, to such phenomena. I could have told this story to make Kevin out as the bad guy, but by stating the psychological behavior presented by Sal I am able to use logos to convince the audience that Sal was in the wrong. This act of social manipulation requires extreme rhetorical advances. In addition to pointing out his gaslighting, I also connected him to an academic reference through the term, ‘mind reader’. By defining this term to the audience and relating it to Sal, I was able to convince the audience that Sal was in the wrong. Due to the fact that applying rhetorical techniques requires a calm and collected thought process, it can be easy for social manipulators to gauge a response out of their victim in order to mess up their thought process. This can be seen when a speaker targets their victims’ pathos. Pathos is something studied by many ancient greeks and points to emotions such as sadness, mania, and elation. I found it very interesting how my example narcissist in my story targeted my friends’ pathos for argumentative purposes. Especially since my friend’s Autism made it difficult for him to even know what pathos is.
The characteristic displayed by this guest mimicked what I would soon find out is the Dark Triad. The Dark Triad is built up of the three main characteristics observed in those with the most twisted of agendas. As someone who has grown up believing that people should treat others with respect, I was astounded that Sal acted like he had no idea how manipulative he actually was. Since Sal was so good at manipulating, I needed to break down the situation in terms of logos and pathos, in order to convince the audience that Sal was using psychological manipulation.
The characteristic displayed by this guest mimicked what I would soon find out is the Dark Triad. The Dark Triad is built up of the three main characteristics observed in those with the most twisted of agendas. As someone who has grown up believing that people should treat others with respect, I was astounded that Sal acted like he had no idea how manipulative he actually was. Since Sal was so good at manipulating, I needed to break down the situation in terms of logos and pathos, in order to convince the audience that Sal was using psychological manipulation.
What was completely missing in this guest’s rhetorical argument was the aspect of ethos. Ethos is the ideals and moral nature of one’s sense of self. Upon first glance, this man Sal hated my friend Kevin. Sal was the type who hid himself behind a facade; scared of what would happen if people actually found out his true identity. It would only become more and more explosive of a situation as Sal continued to prod at Kevin’s Pathos. It is for this reason that I believe that this guest exhibits a tendency to ignore the idea of pathos as he obsessed on his own ego. This is textbook narcissism and should worry most moral beings.
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-Melvin
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