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   Gaslighting   
   From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia   
      
   Ingrid Bergman in the 1944 film Gaslight.   
   Gaslighting or gas-lighting is a form of psychological abuse in which a victim   
   is manipulated into doubting their own memory, perception and sanity.[1][2]   
   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 owes its origin to the 1938 play Gas Light and has been used in   
   clinical and research literature.[3][4]   
      
   Contents   
      
    [hide]    
   1	Etymology   
   2	Clinical examples   
   2.1	Introjection   
   2.2	Resisting   
   3	In the media   
   4	See also   
   5	References   
   6	Further reading   
   7	External links   
   Etymology   
      
   The 1938 stage play Gas Light, known as Angel Street in the United States, and   
   the film adaptations released in 1940 and 1944 motivated the origin of the   
   term because of the systematic psychological manipulation used by the main   
   character on a victim.    
   The plot concerns a husband who attempts to convince his wife and others that   
   she is insane by manipulating small elements of their environment, and   
   subsequently insisting that she is mistaken, remembering things incorrectly,   
   or delusional when she    
   points out these changes. The original title stems from 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 she just imagined a   
   change in the level of illumination.   
      
   The term "gaslighting" has been used colloquially since the 1960s[5] to   
   describe efforts to manipulate someone's sense of reality. In a 1980 book on   
   child sexual abuse, Florence Rush summarized George Cukor's 1944 film version   
   of Gas Light, and writes, "   
   even today the word [gaslighting] is used to describe an attempt to destroy   
   another's perception of reality."[6]   
      
   Clinical examples   
      
   Psychotherapy and psychiatry are thought, by many, to be forms of gaslighting   
   wherein the therapist or psychiatrist is characterized, by the patient, to be   
   of a more sound, all-knowing mind (ie. an expert). This can often create a   
   conflict where the    
   patient is unable to trust their immediate sense of their feelings and   
   surroundings in favor of the interpretations offered by the therapist. Those   
   interpretations will often come in the form of doubt or skepticism at the   
   patient's appraisals and    
   perceptions of their world.[7] Furthermore, gaslighting has been observed   
   between patients and staff in inpatient psychiatric facilities.[8]   
      
   Sociopaths and narcissists frequently use gaslighting tactics. Sociopaths   
   consistently transgress social mores, break laws, and exploit others, but   
   typically are also charming and convincing liars who consistently deny   
   wrongdoing. Thus, some who have    
   been victimized by sociopaths may doubt their perceptions.[9]   
      
   Some physically abusive spouses may gaslight their partners by flatly denying   
   that they have been violent.[4]   
      
   Gaslighting describes a dynamic observed in some cases of marital infidelity:   
   "Therapists may contribute to the victim's distress through mislabeling the   
   woman's reactions. [...] The gaslighting behaviors of the spouse provide a   
   recipe for the so-called '   
   nervous breakdown' for some women [and] suicide in some of the worst   
   situations."[10]   
      
   Gaslighting may also occur in parent–child relationships, with either   
   parent, child, or both, lying to each other and attempting to undermine   
   perceptions.[11]   
      
   Introjection   
      
   In an influential 1981 article Some Clinical Consequences of Introjection:   
   Gaslighting, Calef and Weinshel argue that gaslighting involves the projection   
   and introjection of psychic conflicts from the perpetrator to the victim:   
   "this imposition is based    
   on a very special kind of 'transfer'... of painful and potentially painful   
   mental conflicts."[12]   
      
   The authors explore a variety of reasons why the victims may have "a tendency   
   to incorporate and assimilate what others externalize and project onto them,"   
   and conclude that gaslighting may be "a very complex highly structured   
   configuration which    
   encompasses contributions from many elements of the psychic apparatus."[12]   
   Dorpat (1994) describes this as an example of projective identification.[2]   
      
   Resisting   
      
   With respect to women in particular, Hilde Lindemann argued emphatically that   
   in such cases, the victim's ability to resist the manipulation depends on "her   
   ability to trust her own judgments."[13] Establishment of "counterstories" may   
   help the victim    
   reacquire "ordinary levels of free agency."[13]   
      
   In the media   
      
   British film-maker Adam Curtis has suggested that "nonlinear" or "asymmetric"   
   war (as described by Vladislav Surkov, political advisor to Vladimir Putin) is   
   a form of gaslighting intended for political control.[14]   
      
   See also   
      
   Asch conformity experiments   
   Denial#Denial of fact   
   Denial and deception   
   Guilt trip   
   Martha Mitchell effect   
   Mind control   
   Mind games   
   Münchausen syndrome by proxy   
   Plausible deniability   
   Power and control in abusive relationships   
   Psychological torture   
   Psychological warfare   
   Setting up to fail   
   Victim blaming   
   Zersetzung   
   References   
      
   "Oxford Dictionary definition of 'gaslighting'". Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford   
   University Press. Retrieved 20 April 2016.   
   Dorpat, T.L. (1994). "On the double whammy and gaslighting". Psychoanalysis &   
   Psychotherapy. 11 (1): 91–96. (subscription required (help)). Closed access   
   Dorpat, Theodore L. (1996). Gaslighting, the Double Whammy, Interrogation, and   
   Other Methods of Covert Control in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. Jason   
   Aronson. ISBN 978-1-56821-828-1. Retrieved 2014-01-06.   
   Jacobson, Neil S.; Gottman, John M. (1998-03-10). When Men Batter Women: New   
   Insights into Ending Abusive Relationships. Simon and Schuster. pp. 129–132.   
   ISBN 978-0-684-81447-6. Retrieved 2014-01-06.   
   "gaslight". Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.   
   September 2005. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) 1969   
   S. C. Plog Changing Perspectives in Mental Illness 83 It is also popularly   
   believed to be possible to â   
   €˜gaslight’ a perfectly healthy person into psychosis by interpreting his   
   own behavior to him as symptomatic of serious mental illness.   
      
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