“Gaslighting is the manipulation of someone using psychological methods to induce them to question their own sanity or powers of reasoning.” Kate Abramson’s On Gaslighting analyzes the strategy and tactics of gaslighting. Abramson breaks down the various means used in gaslighting and shows how the methods can induce confusion and madness.
Gaslighting got its name from the 1944 film, Gaslight, where Ingrid Bergman’s Paula is told by a detective: “You’re slowly and systematically being driven out of your mind.”
Abramson shows how gaslighting is done, step-by-step: “What do the eight central tools of gaslighters that I’ve mentioned in this chapter–trust, human sociability (and its dangerous counterpart, isolation), working presumptions of deliberative fallibility, love, empathy, practical considerations, authority and purported authority, and oppressive tropes and stereotypes–all have in common? They are all fundamental ways of organizing and orienting ourselves…” (p. 87-88) The gaslighter uses these tools to disorganize and disorient the target in order to get what they want.
Have you ever been gaslighted? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Acknowledgements — ix
Introduction to Our Topic — 1
What Is Gaslighting? A First Pass — 9
What Gaslighting Looks Like — 25
Gaslighters and Their Aims — 37
The Methods and Means of Gaslighting — 61
Social Structures, Subjugation, and Gaslighting — 89
The Multidimensional Moral Horror Show of Gaslighting — 117
Trust and Gaslighting, Revisited — 161
Bibliography — 203
Index — 209
Based on that definition, no!
Bob, you’re a pretty savvy guy so it would be hard to gaslight you!
I’ve had it tried on me, and I see the tactic employed by certain public figures and news networks to induce irrational behavior . And I rather enjoy the film!
Dan, the film is a classic!
It’s Fox News’s speciality!
Well, the propaganda the church issued on us at school when I was a child might be considered gaslighting – but it made us even more into independent thinkers, never went to church again after turning 14.
Re Faux News:
When I’m sitting somwhere, a bus eg or the airport were there’s no room to hold your laptop I usually switch on my smartphone – most airports have free WiFi nowadays.
My wife’s son has prepared “Google News for you” which is often quite interesting and even funny.
Bur sometimes I see headlines which auromatixally lead me to think “Oh, Faux news again” or “Must be the NY Post”!
Sometimes I even click on them when I’m in the mood and have a good laugh at their sillyness!
Wolf, Fake News and propaganda flood our newspapers and magazines and TV news. The Internet gaslights every public figure!
Jeff, you’re right! There’s no doubt that Fox News loves to gaslight Democrats. They’re gaslighting Biden now!
Oh yes—and it’s been successful a time or two!
Deb, gaslighting seems to be on the rise especially during this political season!
There’s no such thing as a non-partisan news outlet anymore!
Bob, I’m partial to THE ECONOMIST which delivers a global perspective on news.
Albeit a classic liberal +/- perspective.
Todd, liberal but very inclusive.
When did we have such?