gaslighting
gaslighting Lexical Profile
gaslighting Game Scores & Validity
• noun
The practice of psychologically manipulating someone into questioning their own memory, perception of reality, or sanity.
"The counselor helped her recognize that her partner's constant denial of past events was a form of gaslighting."
A system of artificial illumination using the combustion of flammable gas, especially as used for streetlamps and interiors in the 19th century.
"Before the widespread adoption of electricity, Victorian cities relied on gaslighting to illuminate their streets at night."
Word Nuance & Usage
In clinical psychology, gaslighting refers to a severe, sustained pattern of psychological abuse aimed at eroding a person's grasp on reality, though in everyday speech it is often used more loosely to describe ordinary dishonesty or simple disagreement.
Word Origin & Etymology
Derived from Patrick Hamilton's 1938 stage play 'Gas Light' (and its 1940 and 1944 film adaptations), in which a manipulative husband secretly dims the household gas lamps and insists his wife is imagining the change in order to make her doubt her own sanity.