When the sense of reality starts to flicker
I might not have noticed this term at all if I hadn鈥檛 just had to change a number of lightbulbs around the house. It鈥檚 a lighting term 鈥� but it signals a way to cast doubt rather than shed light.
And now I see it everywhere: gaslighting.
A usage example from Macmillan explains: 鈥淚n the simplest of terms, gaslighting is the act of using misinformation and persuasion to make others question what they know to be true, to make them distrust their own memory and instincts, for your own gain.鈥�
Here are two recent appearances of gaslighting on Google News, both in headlines (suggesting the usage needed no explanation): A commentary in the Israeli newspaper called a politician鈥檚 recent visit 鈥淥ne Big Gaslighting Charade鈥� and an entertainment website reported: 鈥淪eth Meyers takes a closer look at how the Trump camp is straight-up gaslighting us now.鈥澛�
On the TV show 鈥淔argo,鈥� actor David Thewlis plays 鈥渃unningly makes a prosperous businessman ... question his own sanity in order to bleed him dry.鈥� An called this behavior 鈥済aslighting.鈥� Mr. Thewlis agreed: 鈥淚 like the term 鈥榞aslighting鈥� and it comes from classic Hamilton I understand.鈥澛�
He鈥檚 right. 鈥溾�� was a 1938 play by Patrick Hamilton, later made into three different films (all called 鈥淕aslight鈥�).聽
, directed by George Cukor, is generally seen as having brought 鈥済aslighting鈥� into the vernacular. In it, a villainous Charles Boyer woos and wins a young heiress (Ingrid Bergman) to gain access to her aunt鈥檚 London townhouse. It contains a secret stash of unimaginably valuable jewels the woman knows nothing of.
As he searches secretly in the attic for the jewels, he launches a campaign to drive his wife mad. He starts small: He hides his watch and pretends she鈥檚 taken it. He removes a picture from the wall and claims she鈥檚 hidden it. He messes with her mind to get her out of his way.
Amateur word sleuths should note that any term whose roots they seek is almost always older than they think. Gaslighting seems to be an exception to that rule.
Even if we understand where this term came from, though, not everyone agrees on the role of actual gaslight in the story. Earlier this year, in , Rosemary Erickson Johnsen wrote that most people assume that Boyer鈥檚 character 鈥渦ses gaslight to drive his wife crazy, making it flicker and then telling her she鈥檚 imagining things in a deliberate attempt to undermine her sanity.鈥� In fact, the writer argues, 鈥淸T]he alterations in the gaslight are one means by which the victim clings to rationality and exerts some agency.鈥�
In a house lit by gas, turning up the flame in one room dims lights elsewhere. Bergman鈥檚 character eventually begins to trace her husband鈥檚 attic explorations, by the brightening and dimming of the lights. Aided by an earnest detective, she escapes her husband鈥檚 trap.
Strictly speaking, the husband did not actually use gaslight in order to gaslight his wife. But in the film, the lambent flames of wall sconces and other lamps throughout the house are a brilliant visual metaphor. They convey the way Bergman鈥檚 character feels her sense of reality has begun to flicker.
