society
The name for one form of manipulation comes from a 1938 play in which a husband slowly distorts his wife's sense of what is real.
Gaslighting describes manipulation where one person deliberately distorts facts or contradicts another's memory so persistently that the victim starts doubting their own grip on reality, often becoming more dependent on the manipulator for a sense of what's true. The term comes from the 1938 play "Gas Light," in which a husband secretly dims the gas lights and insists his wife is imagining the change, convincing her she can't trust her senses.
It has nothing to do with the historical practice of lighting streets with gas lamps, an unrelated literal use of the phrase, nor any formal style of debate — both are false associations from surface word similarity.
The term has since expanded beyond relationships into workplaces, politics, and media, wherever someone tries to convince others their accurate perception of events is simply wrong.
society
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