Gaslight: Difference between revisions
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To '''gaslight''' someone is to make her think she is crazy, for instance by modifying her environment, denying the modifications, and invalidating her perceptions, even though they are accurate. | To '''gaslight''' someone is to make her think she is crazy, for instance by modifying her environment, denying the modifications, and invalidating her perceptions, even though they are accurate. | ||
The term comes from the | The term comes from ''Gaslight'', a 1944 film dir. by George Cukor, starring Ingrid Bergman; Bergman's husband (played by Charles Boyer) systematically attempts to make Bergman think she is going mad by, for instance, setting the gaslight to dim by itself when she is alone in the house. | ||
It usually refers to the [[plot device]] wherein someone deliberately does this to a character, and classified as psychological abuse, but the effects of living in an oppressive society in which the dominant point of view doesn't match the oppressed's point of view, and the oppressors invalidate the perceptions of the oppressed, even without realising they're doing it, are much the same. | It usually refers to the [[plot device]] wherein someone deliberately does this to a character, and classified as psychological abuse, but the effects of living in an oppressive society in which the dominant point of view doesn't match the oppressed's point of view, and the oppressors invalidate the perceptions of the oppressed, even without realising they're doing it, are much the same. | ||
Revision as of 13:40, 12 March 2007
To gaslight someone is to make her think she is crazy, for instance by modifying her environment, denying the modifications, and invalidating her perceptions, even though they are accurate.
The term comes from Gaslight, a 1944 film dir. by George Cukor, starring Ingrid Bergman; Bergman's husband (played by Charles Boyer) systematically attempts to make Bergman think she is going mad by, for instance, setting the gaslight to dim by itself when she is alone in the house.
It usually refers to the plot device wherein someone deliberately does this to a character, and classified as psychological abuse, but the effects of living in an oppressive society in which the dominant point of view doesn't match the oppressed's point of view, and the oppressors invalidate the perceptions of the oppressed, even without realising they're doing it, are much the same.
See also: women and madness.