Gaslighting is the term used for harming a person through manipulation and deception in order to make them believe they are going crazy.
Webster defines it as: "psychological manipulation of a person usually over an extended period of time that causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories and typically leads to confusion, loss of confidence and self-esteem, uncertainty of one's emotional or mental stability, and a dependency on the perpetrator"
2022 has revealed many examples of gaslighting in the media, politics, in family court and in criminal court. Gaslighting is often the foundation upon which a pattern of coercive control is established. Gaslighting is designed to make a person doubt themselves, and the victim's doubt that they are being abused is critical for the coercive controller to keep their abuse #invisibleinplainsight. Abusers and #coercivecontrollers use tactice of gaslighting not only to create doubt, reduce self-esteem and uncertainty. The goal of #gaslighting, which includes a pattern of #coercivecontrol, is to completely dominate the targeted victim/survivor. The intent of coercive control and gaslighting is more than just "dependency", it often includes a desire to annihilate the targeted victim completely.
Coercive control is present by stage 3 of the 8 stages of intimate partner homicide. Coercive control is the number 1 risk factor for #intimatepartnerhomicide. And coercive control will always include gaslighting to some degree. Why? Because people don't enjoy being entrapped, enslaved and terrorized, so the coercive controller has to use gaslighting to keep the targeted victim from noticing that is what is happening.
Once the targeted victim/survivor discovers that they are being abused and/or coercively controlled, the coercive controller may reduce the level of gaslighting toward that survivor. However, what usually increases is the gaslighting that the perpetrator of coercive control begins to use to abuse the survivor by proxy.
#FamilyCourt is one place gaslighting the survivor via abuse by proxy occurs regularly. Once the target has realized they need to escape their coercive controller, the abuser shifts their focus from direct gaslighting to using police, attorneys, GALs, judges, court evaluators and unscientific theories like #parentalalienationsyndrome to gaslight them indirectly.
If you are being gaslit by a coercive controller or the systems that are supposed to protect you, you can book a free consult with me to see if there's anything that can be done to protect you and your family.
