Yes, I know the kind of mind games you are talking about, I experienced them with my siblings too, also saw my father turn my mother's reasoning around to get His control.

It is good that you are recognizing this problem. And what is even worse is that a "lot" of people will play little mind games, and what will help you is to learn how to identify them, how you react to them, and how you can learn how to "not" react when they are presented to you.

More than ever before society has been inundated with "manipulations", by politicians, and the media and people who are trying to market anything from soup to nuts too. A lot of people are on the defensive now, because people in society are actually "afraid" because there really has been a great deal of change taking place.

Being more successful as a person means you need to slowly learn how to not feel so on the defensive, a lot of people are feeling that way. Sometimes just focusing on something someone says that you can agree with is better than seeing the things you don't like and discrediting everything the individual says so you walk away the winner, but are the loser because you needed to have "all" of the opinion or interaction, leaving the other person with nothing and no desire to interact with you again.

Here is a good article for you to read Shakesphere, I do remember you like to read and learn and ponder.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-tra...usaolp00000592