Toxic people are people who are bright and articulate -- but deeply wrong. They invite you to think less of yourself, to question yourself for no particular reason. A toxic person does not say, "I don't follow your reasoning" and then explains precisely how. A toxic person operates almost exclusively on emotion, while perhaps posing as someone who operates on reason. A toxic person is a fraud and a phony, and also someone who is counting on you to succumb to his or her emotional states even in opposition to obvious facts.

The antidote to toxic people is reason. This doesn't mean that you persuade a toxic person into being rational. It means that you place reason above the irrationality, and in the process the toxic person's hostility has no power. A toxic person only has the power you grant to him or her. When you place reason above irrationality, and when you're in the habit of being objective about people, things, events and emotions, then the people who prey upon you have nothing left to prey upon. Like the wicked witch in the old movie, “The Wizard of Oz,” they simply … melt away from your consciousness.