Attacks on the mind and the legal limits of the seduction industry

This chapter explores consciously manipulated sexual ‘consent’ from legal, psychological, and philosophical perspectives. As a prism through which to explore these issues, the paper looks at the lucrative ‘seduction industry’, with a particular focus on courses which purport to teach single men how to ‘programme’ women in the pursuit of sexual ‘consent’. Sitting between the extremes of consent by hypnosis, and consent by charm, we ask whether (and how) the law should engage with such activity, and what, if anything, this phenomenon tells us about the nature of consent. We analyse techniques of programmed consent over three parts. In Part A we discuss attacks on the mind in general terms, exploring the extent to which the law protects against mental manipulations. In Part B we focus on the seduction industry, and the detail of the claims made about their techniques. Finally, in Part C, we discuss how the current law (in the sexual context at least) could be used to protect victims’ mental integrity, whether the techniques attempted for programming consent are successful or not.