How Gaslighting Manifests in Different Situations

Gaslighting, a term coined by Robert Stern, represents the manipulation and undermining of another person’s reality by denying facts, the environment around them, or their feelings. The phrase originated from a 1938 mystery thriller called Gas Light. Written by British playwright Patrick Hamilton, it follows a man, Greg, who manipulates his wife, Paula, into believing she can no longer trust her perceptions of reality. In one pivotal scene, Gregory causes the gaslights in the house to flicker by turning them on in the attic of the house. Yet when Paula asks why the gaslights are flickering, he insists that it’s not really happening and that it’s all in her mind, causing her to doubt her self-perception. Hence the term “gaslighting.”

The instance above is only one example of how gaslighting can manifest in a situation. The concept of gaslighting can be displayed in a wide array of scenarios involving gender, racial injustice, LGBTQ youth, and institutional microaggressions. Let’s discuss each one in detail.

Gender: One article by sociologists states that based on survey data, gaslighting is common in domestic violence situations, preventing women from accessing resources that would help them escape the abuse. Additionally, when perpetrators apply gender-based stereotypes against victims with whom they are in an intimate relationship, gaslighting becomes not only effective, but devastating. It deprives women of the social power that allows them to define their own identities and self-image. Women report fear of seeming excessively emotional in intimate relationships with men, and they experience a lack of power as a result. Because their self-perception and perceptions of reality are negatively influenced, their mental state can quickly deteriorate because of this effective manipulation strategy. It seems that gaslighting should be considered both a psychological and sociological concept because it is a core feature of domestic violence between men and women.

Racial Profiling: Through an analysis of 27 news media articles on the topic of street checks, researchers found that police services and media in Ontario, Canada enacted gaslighting, a form of psychological abuse that is used to manipulate others in order to deceive and undermine the credibility of the target. Specifically, they denied any systemic and structural issues with respect to anti-Black racism in the city. They avoided stating any definition of their practice of street checks to the public which allowed them to deflect public outrage. The psychological effects of gaslighting on people of color included “a sense of alienation, disenfranchisement from the community, and distrust toward the police.” With this study, it is suggested that gaslighting is part of a systemic, historical process of racism that has been used by the police and government organizations to both illegally target people of color and deny complicity in racial profiling. Racial assumptions eventually become ingrained and internalized in the infrastructure of society, and act as institutional reminders to individuals and groups.

LGBTQ: One group that encounters gaslighting in their daily lives is our youth. K-12 school students who are part of the LGBTQ community experience gaslighting everyday at school. The prominence of gaslighting in schools can be attributed to sociocultural oppression. It can be considered a form of oppression that punishes queerness. On a national level, Betsy DeVos, the United States Secretary of Education under the Trump administration, overturned rulings that protected transgender students. Researchers analyzed how shifting policies contributed to sociocultural gaslighting that directly impacts LGBTQ+ youth in schools. As it is argued in the article, shifts in policies intensifies the psychological warfare of gaslighting and is therefore an intentional move to despoil queerness in schools.

Institutional: One severe form of institutional gaslighting is whistle-blower gaslighting. In organizations, those who report misconduct suffer intense emotional manipulation by other employees to discredit and punish the employees. It results in sadness, anxiety, and an intense loss of self-worth. They become traumatized and start to doubt their perceptions, competence, and mental state. Oftentimes institutions enable reprisals, explain them away, and pronounce that the whistle-blower is irrationally overreacting to normal everyday interactions. Over time, these strategies trap the whistle-blower in a maze of enforced helplessness. It is recommended that any employee who reports a concern and subsequently experiences an unusual negative workplace event should consider looking for a new job.

There are resources available to those who have experienced gaslighting and to get support if they need it.

• https://www.thehotline.org/2014/05/29/what-is-gaslighting/
• http://icallhelpline.org/are-you-being-gaslighted/
• https://www.domesticshelters.org/articles/gaslighting/gaslighting-could-you-be-missing-the-signs

Feel free to leave a comment with your experiences, personal or not, if you feel comfortable.

References
Kathy, A. (2018). Institutional betrayal and gaslighting: Why whistle-blowers are so traumatized. Journal of Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing, 32(1), 59-65. doi: 10.1097/JPN.0000000000000306

Sweet, P. L. (2019). The sociology of gaslighting. American Sociological Association, 84(5), 851-875. doi: 10.1177/0003122419874843

Tobias, H., & Joseph, A. (2020). Sustaining systemic racism through psychological gaslighting: Denials of racial profiling and justifications of carding by police utilizing local news media. Race and Justice, 10(4), 424-455. doi: 10.1177/2153368718760969
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Wozolek, B. (2018). Gaslighting queerness: schooling as a place of violent assemblages. Journal of LGBT Youth, 15(4), 319-338. doi: 10.1080/19361653.2018.1484839