word
also: Cinema
Gaslighting
Making someone doubt their own perception or memory in order to control them.
Origin
From Patrick Hamilton's 1938 play Gas Light and George Cukor's 1944 film, in which a husband slowly convinces his wife she is going mad โ partly by dimming the gas lights in their home and denying that anything has changed. The term entered psychology and feminist writing in the 1960s and went mainstream in the 2010s. Merriam-Webster named it 2022's word of the year.
Modern usage
Used precisely (manipulation that targets reality itself) and loosely (any time someone disagrees with you). Worth using carefully โ overuse has diluted a serious concept.
In the wild
He kept insisting I hadn't told him, even though I clearly had โ classic gaslighting.โ common usage
Tags
manipulation
abuse
psychology