This paper sets out to present some of the ways in which manipulation and persuasion have been viewed, but also to ask whether there is such a thing as manipulative persuasion that is intrinsically verbal. Starting with the ancient technique of rhetoric; over the 20th century nightmare of "thought control"; to the view that linguistic structures are not inherently deceptive or manipulative, -though there have been evolutionary psychologists who claim that the origin of language is essentially ‘machiavellian manipulation’-; to thought and social action (or how it might be possible for a population to be ‘manipulated’ into changing its mental representations); to the question what factors might override the natural functioning — assuming that such is the case — of the consistency-checking module, and finally; to a conclusion that addresses manipulation and countermanipulation.