How Gaslighting Works
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The term gaslighting comes from a 1938 play, Gas Light, and its film adaptation. Gaslighting can occur in personal or professional relationships, and victims are targeted at the core of their being: their sense of identity and self-worth. Manipulative people who engage in gaslighting do so to attain power over their victims, either because they simply derive warped enjoyment from the act or because they wish to emotionally, physically or financially control their victim.
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What Exactly Is Gaslighting, and Why Do People Do It?
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A new study shows what drives people to gaslight and how to recover from it.
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During the last several years, it’s been impossible to avoid the term “gaslighting.” In fact, it was selected as Merriam-Webster’s 2022 Word of the Year based on the frequency of searches for it. But what does it mean, really?
Merriam-Webster defines gaslighting as “psychological manipulation of a person usually over an extended period of time that causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories and typically leads to confusion, loss of confidence and self-esteem, uncertainty of one’s emotional or mental stability, and a dependency on the perpetrator.”