mind game 
noun
A course of psychologically manipulative behaviour intended to discomfit another person or gain an advantage over them: I have been playing mind games to get him to invite us...
- I think it's a psychological mind game he's still going for the drivers' title.
- Tonight's State of Origin match between Queensland and New South Wales, for instance, is actually the culmination of a sophisticated mind game that's been going on for three weeks.
- This is not a name-naming game - but is it a mind game?