Gaslighting (nonfiction)

Ingrid Bergman in the 1944 film Gaslight.

Gaslighting is a form of manipulation that seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or in members of a targeted group, hoping to make them question their own memory, perception, and sanity.

Using persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying, it attempts to destabilize the target and delegitimize the target's belief.

Instances may range from the denial by an abuser that previous abusive incidents ever occurred up to the staging of bizarre events by the abuser with the intention of disorienting the victim.

The term originates in the systematic psychological manipulation of a victim by the main character in the 1938 stage play Gas Light, known as Angel Street in the United States, and the film adaptations released in 1940 and 1944. In the story, a husband attempts to convince his wife and others that she is insane by manipulating small elements of their environment and insisting that she is mistaken, remembering things incorrectly, or delusional when she points out these changes.

The term "gas light" refers to the dimming of the gas lights in the house that happened when the husband was using the gas lights in the attic while searching for hidden treasure. The wife accurately notices the dimming lights and discusses the phenomenon, but the husband insists that she just imagined a change in the level of illumination.

The colloquial phrase "gaslighting" has been used since the 1960s to describe efforts to manipulate someone's perception of reality.

Fiction cross-reference

• Baron Zersetzung

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Zersetzung (nonfiction)

External links:

• Gaslighting @ Wikipedia.com
• Gaslighting for Beginners @ Medium.com