Gaslighting is the subjective experience in which an individual's perception of reality is repeatedly undermined or questioned by another person. [1] [2] [3] This term, originating from the title of the 1944 American film Gaslight , which was a remake of the 1940 British film based on the 1938 British theater play Gas Light by Patrick Hamilton , has become colloquial . However, it did not achieve widespread usage in the English language until the mid-2010s. [4] [5] In a 2022, Washington Post report, it was
The term alludes to the 1944 American film Gaslight , [5] [6] [7] a remake of the 1940 British film of the same name , which in turn is based on the 1938 thriller play Gas Light . Set among London's elite during the Victorian era , it portrays a seemingly genteel husband using lies and manipulation to isolate his heiress wife and persuade her that she is mentally unwell so that he can steal from her. [8] In the story the husband secretly dims and brightens the indoor gas-powered lighting but insists his wif
The gerund form gaslighting was first used in the 1950s, particularly in the episode of The Burns and Allen Show; in The New York Times , it was first used in a 1995 column by Maureen Dowd . [4] According to the American Psychological Association in 2021, gaslighting "once referred to manipulation so extreme as to induce mental illness or to justify commitment of the gaslighted person to a psychiatric institution". [1] Largely an obscure or esoteric term until gaining traction in the mid-2010s – The Times o