I just have to input this here, this tactic has been throughoutly tested and proven to work by Stasi, the following is taken from wikipedia.
en.wikipedia.org
The Stasi perfected the technique of
psychological harassment of perceived enemies known as
Zersetzung (pronounced
[ʦɛɐ̯ˈzɛtsʊŋ]) – a term borrowed from chemistry which literally means "
decomposition".
...the Stasi often used a method which was really diabolic. It was called Zersetzung, and it's described in another guideline. The word is difficult to translate because it means originally "biodegradation". But actually, it's a quite accurate description. The goal was to destroy secretly the self-confidence of people, for example by damaging their reputation, by organizing failures in their work, and by destroying their personal relationships. Considering this, East Germany was a very modern dictatorship. The Stasi didn't try to arrest every dissident. It preferred to paralyze them, and it could do so because it had access to so much personal information and to so many institutions. |
—Hubertus Knabe, German historian [36] |
By the 1970s, the Stasi had decided that the methods of overt persecution that had been employed up to that time, such as arrest and torture, were too crude and obvious. It was realised that psychological harassment was far less likely to be recognised for what it was, so its victims, and their supporters, were less likely to be provoked into active resistance, given that they would often not be aware of the source of their problems, or even its exact nature.
Zersetzung was designed to side-track and "switch off" perceived enemies so that they would lose the will to continue any "inappropriate" activities.
Tactics employed under
Zersetzung generally involved the disruption of the victim's private or family life. This often included psychological attacks, such as breaking into homes and subtly manipulating the contents, in a form of
gaslighting – moving furniture, altering the timing of an alarm, removing pictures from walls or replacing one variety of tea with another. Other practices included property damage, sabotage of cars, purposely incorrect medical treatment,
smear campaigns including sending falsified compromising photos or documents to the victim's family,
denunciation,
provocation,
psychological warfare,
psychological subversion,
wiretapping,
bugging, mysterious phone calls or unnecessary deliveries, even including sending a
vibrator to a target's wife. Usually, victims had no idea that the Stasi were responsible. Many thought that they were losing their minds, and mental breakdowns and suicide could result.
One great advantage of the
harassment perpetrated under
Zersetzung was that its subtle nature meant that it was able to be
plausibly denied. This was important given that the GDR was trying to improve its international standing during the 1970s and 80s, especially in conjunction with the
Ostpolitik of West German Chancellor
Willy Brandt massively improving relations between the two German states.