![]() You doubt your feelings and reality: You try to convince yourself that the treatment you receive is not that bad or that you are too sensitive.For instance, many news articles have been written about Donald Trump’s so-called gaslighting behaviour towards the American public, in which he has tried to manipulate people into “doubting their reality”. Gaslighting’s application in the public lexicon has become quite broad. ![]() Comments directed to survivors that they must have “misread the situation” or “imagined the abuse” can in turn point to wider questions about a person’s sanity. ![]() Unfortunately, gaslighting has also been used to dismiss those who have employed #MeToo to speak out about their abuse. ![]() Gaslighting reframes these cliches: instead of asking whether women are indeed crazy, it questions the motivations of the accuser. The term also rebuts a common set of stereotypes: the “crazy ex-girlfriend”, the “bitches be crazy” or “ psycho bitch” refrain and the “hysterical woman”. Gaslighting is increasingly being recognised as a technique of abuse by groups such as the Domestic Violence Resource Centre of Victoria and Safe Steps. As we move towards a broader understanding of what constitutes abuse, there is growing recognition that psychologically abusive techniques such as gaslighting are often used to unnerve and demoralise others. Gaslighting’s re-emergence in our day-to-day vernacular is in part due to a wider societal focus on violence against women. But gaslighting is often used as a method of power and control.Ĭommon gaslighting tactics can include denial of the gaslightee’s experience (“That wasn’t what happened!”), escalation (“Why would you question this? I wouldn’t lie to you!”), trivialisation (“You’re too sensitive, this is nothing”), and countering (“That wasn’t what happened, this was”). The behaviour itself is not always deliberate, in that the perpetrator may not have consciously set out to distort another person’s experience of reality. If you’ve read the ancient Greek myth of Cassandra (about a woman cursed to foresee true prophecies that others disbelieve due to her perceived mental instability), watched The Truman Show, or listened to Shaggy’s hit song, It Wasn’t Me (in which a man tells his girlfriend it wasn’t him she saw having sex with another woman), you’ve seen gaslighting in action.Īlthough it can cover various behaviours, the central tenet of gaslighting is the psychological manipulation of a person in order to erode their sense of self and sanity. Gaslighting is a new term for a relatively old set of behaviours. The policeman confirms that the lights are flickering, demonstrating that Paula is not insane. In the film’s final scenes, Paula allows a policeman to enter the house while Gregory is preoccupied with his search. Upon returning to Paula, he denies all knowledge of this, leading her to question her sanity. Whenever he sneaks off to the attic to search for the jewels, he switches on the lights in that part of the house: this leads all other lights to flicker and dim. One of his main tactics in convincing Paula she is losing her mind is his manipulation of the gaslights in their home.
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