Also known as Gaslight, Gaslighted, Gaslighter
A form of manipulation in which one person repeatedly makes another doubt their own memory, perception or sanity. It describes abusive behaviour; it is not a medical diagnosis.
In Psychology
Gaslighting means deliberately and repeatedly making someone doubt what they saw, heard or remember — "that never happened", "you are imagining things", "you are too sensitive" — until they stop trusting their own judgement. It is a pattern of behaviour, usually in a relationship where one person holds more power, and it is a form of emotional abuse. It is not a psychiatric diagnosis for either person.
The word comes from Patrick Hamilton's 1938 play Gas Light and the 1944 film Gaslight, in which a husband secretly dims the house's gas lamps and then insists to his wife that she is imagining it. Merriam-Webster named it word of the year in 2022.
An honest disagreement, a different memory of the same event, or someone simply being wrong is not gaslighting. Research on it is still limited; one influential study of domestic abuse found abusers draw on stereotypes and on the victim's social and financial dependence to make her seem unreliable to others. Read more on gaslighting.
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