What is gaslighting? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on this form of emotional abuse.
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Kevin
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January 25, 2022
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What Does the Word Gaslighting Mean?
Gaslighting is a form of emotional abuse and manipulation in which someone creates a false narrative to make another person question their own reality and judgment. This can make the gaslighting victim feel crazy, questioning their sanity and perception of the world around them.
Gaslighting is most common in abusive romantic relationships, but can also happen in family relationships. Sometimes, abusers who gaslight might have mental health problems like narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) or borderline personality disorder (BPD). This mental illness can also occur in the workplace, or on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter.
Being gaslit for an extended period of time can cause anxiety, low self-esteem, the inability to have a cognitive perception of reality, depression, and the feeling that a person needs to walk on eggshells around their gaslighter. Psychologist Robin Stern Ph.D., the Associate Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, states that it is a very serious, dangerous problem since it can warp the victim’s own perceptions of reality and cause a feeling of isolation.
What Are the Symptoms of Gaslighting?
Symptoms of this psychological manipulation present in the gaslight effect come from the gaslighting partner’s behavior as well as the person who is being gaslit. They might feel like they need to make excuses or apologies for their partner’s behavior, be unsure or fuzzy in their feelings or beliefs, or in unintentional arguments.
The partner’s symptoms might be lying frequently, discrediting the partner’s thoughts or opinions to others, withholding love, distracting from the situation or changing the subject, or minimizing the thoughts or feelings of others. They might also use compassion as a weapon, deny that wrongdoings ever happened, or shift blame onto someone else. Finally, there is countering, which is when the abuser tells the gaslightee that an event or happening did not occur in the way that they thought.
How Do Other Languages Refer to Gaslighting?
Since the term gaslight comes from a movie that is in English, there is not always a direct translation available into another language. However, the word gaslight is a specific form of manipulation. In other languages, the term gaslighting might simply be referred to as manipulation. Take a look at this list of translations of the word manipulation:
- German: manipulieren
- Finnish: käsitellä, manipuloida
- Vietnamese: điều khiển, thao túng
- Romanian: manipula
- Russian: манипули́ровать (impf) (+ instrumental case), возде́йствовать (impf) (на + accusative case), влия́ть (impf) (на + accusative case)
- Catalan: manipular
- Italian: manipolare, plagiare
- Nynorsk: manipulere
- Spanish: manipular
- Dutch: beïnvloeden, manipuleren
- Bokmål: manipulere
- French: manipuler
- Portuguese: manipular
What Is the Origin of the Word Gaslighting?
This term comes from the film Gaslight starring Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, and Joseph Cotten. In the film, the husband tricks and manipulates the wife into no longer trusting her own reality, first by telling his wife that the gas lights in the house are not flickering and it’s all in her head when they are actually flickering due to his own creation.
How Can the Word Gaslighting Be Used in a Sentence?
Gaslighting is a very specific word that is used in a number of mental health contexts. It is important to be able to recognize the symptoms of gaslighting and use this word in a sentence in case someone is trying to gaslight you. If you can recognize and point out gaslighting, it can help you avoid being manipulated. Below are a few examples of how to use the word gaslight in a sentence.
Don’t sit there and try to gaslight me, I see what you’re doing! I’m not going to fall for that!
The man gaslit the woman until she no longer know what was real and what was fiction. It was terrifying to watch him twist her perception of reality.
I’m so happy I got out of that relationship. All he did was gaslight me, and I never knew the truth.
What Are Synonyms of the Word Gaslighting?
The word gaslighting is meant to be used in a very specific circumstance or situation. There are many other different forms of manipulation, so it is useful to know these different words that are similar to gaslighting so you can use the correct term in conversation. Make sure that you do not accuse someone of gaslighting if it is actually a different form of manipulation.
- twisting around your little finger
- deluding
- impressing
- beguiling
- bilking
- hoaxing
- double-crossing
- stringing along
- sucking in
- swindling
- ripping off
- leading up the garden path
- outmaneuvering
- pulling a fast one on
- setting up
- wangling
- pulling strings
- contriving
- trapping
- snookering
- stiffing
- scamming
- playing games
- defrauding
Overall, the word gaslighting is a term that refers to the manipulation of a person into believing that their own judgment is not sound, also lowering their sense of self-worth and toying with the victim’s memory and their own feelings. The gaslighter will implement reality twists, spread rumors or gossip, and participate in other gaslighting behaviors to manipulate their partner.
While this can happen in any gender with a different person, it is most common for males to gaslight females in romantic partnerships. If you think you are being gaslit, talk to a mental health professional.
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