The Art of Seduction: An Indispensible Primer on the Ultimate Form of Power

Content Warning: The source material includes references to suicide, sexual assault, domestic violence, and incest.

“In the nineteenth century another great change occurred: politicians like Napoleon consciously saw themselves as seducers, on a grand scale…By seducing the masses they could accumulate immense power without the use of force.”

People often view seduction as a tool in romantic interactions but rarely consider how leaders, corporations, and the media seduce the public to increase their power. Greene discusses political seduction in several chapters, particularly the chapter on Charismatics, which is devoted to political, social, and other leaders. This contrasts with the other chapters in the book, which mostly focus on sexual seduction. His discussion of political seduction differs from his discussion of romantic seduction because of its emphasis on seduction techniques that the seduced, or public, can recognize, compared to other chapters that emphasize techniques for seducers to use, from their perspective.

“Seducers are people who understand the tremendous power contained in such moments of surrender. They analyze what happens when people are in love, study the psychological components of the process—what spurs the imagination, what casts a spell. By instinct and through practice they master the art of making people fall in love.”

This quote highlights Greene’s main goal to show seducers how to use psychology to make someone fall in love with them, then surrender to sex. It contains the essence of his argument that underscores the book’s three themes: Seduction Is Psychological, Seduction Is Adversarial, and Seduction Is About Power. He uses the words “power” and “surrender,” denoting an adversarial and imbalanced interaction and acknowledges the psychological study seducers need to make of their romantic interest.