Gaslighting is the process of emotionally manipulating someone into questioning their sanity, perception, or reality. This manipulation can cause victims to feel confused or disoriented as they begin to lose their sense of reality. The term originated in the 1938 play “Gas Light”, which follows a husband who gradually manipulates his wife into doubting her perception of reality. While the word “gaslighting” was never used in the play itself, it has since been adopted as the term for the phenomenon.
Perpetrators of gaslighting will often attempt to isolate their victims from their support systems in order to prevent them from receiving an untainted perspective. The gaslighting party will often use those feelings of isolation to make their victims dependent on them. This dependency makes it difficult for victims of gaslighting to escape its self-perpetuating cycle of abuse.