In Shakespeare's Othello, psychological manipulation plays a key role in the development of the plot in the play. You have the main character and protagonist, Othello, who is eventually driven mad by Iago telling him false information and convincing him it is true. Iago is a clever man and he uses his cleverness to take advantage of a flaw that Othello has which is his jealousy. Iago's corruption of Othello plays a key part in the play because it leads to the death of himself and others. Othello had no true proof that Desdemona was having an affair but he still believes Iago. This just shows how naive Othello is. Othello also experiences seizures caused by stress and lack of sleep. He just can't believe that Desdemona would do that to him and he is embarrassed at the possible thought of being a cuckold.
On the other hand, Desdemona is going through some psychological problems as well. She lacks feeling of self-worth at this point in the novel because she doesn't known what she did to deserve punishment from Othello. It's a very rational thing to think about as a person in an abusive relationship that what did I do to deserve this? Desdemona and Othello suffer from depression right now because Othello thinks that Desdemona is cheating on him and Desdemona doesn't know why Othello is being so mean and nasty to her.

The men in Othello are more of a focus than the women. They are all, however, very different. The men in this Shakespearean tragedy are all rather powerful. Both Othello and Iago are rather naive in my opinion. Iago was willing to ruin Othello's life just because he did not get the lieutenant job and Othello was willing to kill his new wife without any true evidence of her doing anything wrong, just another man's word. I would consider the male figures in Othello "typical" males because of the way they handle verbal altercations, especially Cassio with the fight at the end of Act II. The men in Othello are looked at as greater people than the women are.
The two main women in Othello are Desdemona, Othello's wife, and Emilia, Iago's wife. I would consider these two young women foils of each other. Desdemona represents the typical wife doing whatever Othello tells her to do while Emilia questions what Iago does which wasn't typical for women of her time. I also found it interesting how when Othello yelled at Desdemona about the handkerchief, she defends him saying that he's just stressed out because of all the things on his plate kind of like what the First Lady would say about the President if they were in a similar situation. All in all, women in Othello are looked at as possessions and aren't equal to men.