gaslighting

[gas-lahy-ting]

noun

1. the use of psychological manipulation to undermine a person’s faith in their own judgment, memory, or sanity.

   Gaslighting is not restricted to romantic relationships, but also occurs in friendships and among family members.

2. the practice of deceiving people through the repetition of a constructed false narrative.

   It’s not uncommon for victims of gaslighting to argue passionately in favor of the story they’ve been fed.

Word History and Origins

Origin of gaslighting¹

First recorded in 1815–25, for a literal sense; 1960–65, for the current senses; gaslight ( def. ) + -ing ¹ ( def. )

Example Sentences

Trumpian rhetoric relies on a rotating arsenal of cognitive traps: Whataboutism to deflect, false equivalence to confuse, red herrings to distract and gaslighting to exhaust.

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Britney Spears will not stand for ex-husband Kevin Federline’s scathing claims about how she raised their two sons, writing on social media that the allegations in his upcoming book are part of his “constant gaslighting.”

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“We are not going to tolerate gaslighting from anyone in the media, from anyone on the other side who is trying to say that it’s the president who is weaponizing the DOJ,” Leavitt said.

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“They are gaslighting families into believing that schools are unsafe, when in reality the system already protects students.”

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“So that is gaslighting to white people,” she added, “providing them a permission structure to not look at their moral choice and what they’re doing.”

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