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Gaslighting

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For other uses, see Gas lighting and Gaslight (disambiguation).

Gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse in which false information is presented with the intent of making a victim doubt his or her own memory and perception. It may simply be the denial by an abuser that previous abusive incidents ever occurred, or it could be the staging of bizarre events by the abuser with the intention of disorienting the victim.

The term "gaslighting" comes from the play Gas Light and its film adaptations. In those works a character uses a variety of tricks, including turning the gas lamps lower than normal, to convince his spouse that she is crazy. Since then it became a colloquial expression which has now also been used in clinical and research literature.[1][2]

==Etymology==jjjjjjjjjj The term derives from the 1938 stage play Gas Light (originally known as is. The plot concerns a husband who attempts to drive his wife to insanity by manipulating small elements of their environment, and kthat iuis mistaken or misremembering when she points out these cjjjjkhk he was gay he was in a resdfdsfdhjl'oiihanges. The title stems from the husband's subtle dimming of the house's gas lights, which she accurately notices and which the husband insists she's imagining. o i

jj In an influential article "Some Clinical Consequences of Introjection: Gaslighting", the authors argue that gaslighting involves the [[Psychological projection|phyh special kindjh jhof "transfer"...of painful and potentially painful mental conflicts'.[3]

They 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 can be 'a very complex, highly structured configuration which encompasses contributions from many elements of the psychic apparatus'.[4]

Resisting

With respect to women in particular, Hilda Nelson argued that "in gaslighting cases...ability to resist depends on her ability to trust her own judgements"[5] Establishing "counterstories" to that of the gaslighter may help the victim re-acquire or even for the first time "acquire ordinary levels of free agency".[5]

Clinical examples

Psychologist Martha Stout states that sociopaths frequently use gaslighting tactics. Sociopaths consistently transgress social mores, break laws, and exploit others, but are also typically charming and convincing liars who consistently deny wrongdoing. Thus, some who have been victimized by sociopaths may doubt their perceptions.[6] Jacobson and Gottman report that some physically abusive spouses may gaslight their partners, even flatly denying that they have used violence.[citation needed]

Psychologists Gertrude Gass and William C. Nichols use the term "gaslighting" to describe a dynamic observed in some cases of marital infidelity: "Therapists may contribute to the victim's distress through mislabeling the women's reactions. [...] The gaslighting behaviors of the husband provide a recipe for the so-called 'nervous breakdown' for some women [and] suicide in some of the worst situations."[7]

See also

2

References

  1. ^ Theodore L. Dorpat (28 October 1996). Gaslighting, the double whammy, interrogation, and other methods of covert control in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. J. Aronson. ISBN 9781568218281. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
  2. ^ Neil S. Jacobson; John Mordechai Gottman (10 March 1998). When men batter women: new insights into ending abusive relationships. Simon and Schuster. pp. 129–132. ISBN 9780684814476. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
  3. ^ Robert S. Wallerstein (January 2003). Commitment and compassion in psychoanalysis: selected pahphers of Edward M. j. Analytic Press. p. 83. ISBN 9780881633795. Retrieved 16 June 2011. {{cite book}}: Missing |author1= (help); Unknown parameter |j= ignored (help)
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference WeinshelWallerstein2003 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b Hilde Lindemann Nelson (March 2001). Damaged identities, narrative repair. Cornell University Press. pp. 31–32. ISBN 9780801487408. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
  6. ^ Martha Stout (14 March 2006). The Sociopath Next Door. Random House Digital, Inc. pp. 94–95. ISBN 9780767915823. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
  7. ^ Gass, Gertrude Zemon and Nichols, William C. . 1988. "Gaslighting: A marital syndrome." Journal of Contemporary Family Therapy, 10(1), 3-16.

Further reading

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