These days you can hardly go more than a day or two without hearing the word “gaslighting.” This term is defined as a type of emotional manipulation in which a “gaslighter” tries to convince you that you’re misremembering, misunderstanding, or misinterpreting your own behavior or motivations, which create doubt in your mind leaving you vulnerable and confused. The term came from the play called “Gas Light” and the film adaptations released in 1940 and 1944 which depicts this type of abuse as occurring to the wife of an abuser. The important thing to learn is it always takes place between two people; the gaslighter, who creates confusion and doubt, and a gaslightee, who is willing to doubt their own perceptions in order to keep the relationship going. Dr. Robin Stern; Associate Director for the Yale Center of Emotional Intelligence, surprisingly discovered the Gaslight Effect while she facilitated
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