When British playwright Patrick Hamilton wrote a play in 1938 gas lightcould not imagine that this name would become a very common idiomatic expression in the 21st century, gaslighting, used to determine plus or minus subtle form of manipulation which leads the victim to question the validity of one’s own thoughts, perceptions of reality, or memories. In an age where we increasingly have to deal with fake news, distorted reconstructions, and personal use of communications and social media, gaslighting it has become an instrument of oppression not only in the family dynamic—see domestic violence—but also in the political realm. And here immediately comes to mind the abuse of power by Donald Trump, who, after disavowing the results of the 2020 general election, screamed fraud to delegitimize his opponent and convince his supporters to rise up, with a tragic epilogue to Capitol Hill. It is no coincidence that CNN called him the “master gaslighter”, the king of manipulators.
It is for this reason, along with permacrisis, Gaslighting is the word of the year, as evidenced by the number of searches on Merriam-Webster, America’s oldest dictionary publisher, that the term was typed 740% more times in 2022. Seventeen and a half times more than the previous year, indicating a change in the collective sensibility that struggles to discern truth and fiction, plausibility and improbability. Blame him not only for the degeneration of public debate on social mediawhere there is no moderation, other than that imposed by the technological giants, but harmless and impartial, but also Covid pandemics which, far from bringing science back to the center as originally hoped, served as a pretext for deepening divisions between orthodox and skeptics, between the indecisive and the conspiracy theorists always on the trail of an obscure plan of mass destruction.
And when you think about it, gaslighting has its origins in Hamilton’s Victorian comedy set in London.based on the bourgeois marriage of lies and deceit. The play was filmed twice: in Great Britain in 1940, and then, more successfully, in the USA in 1944. the star Paula, traumatized by the death of the aunt who raised her, but caught in the whirlwind of her marriage to a charming musician (Charles Boyer). The relationship is far from happy, and over time, the woman becomes increasingly isolated and disoriented, convinced by her husband that she is going crazy: objects disappear, strange sounds leak from a locked attic, lights turn on in the house, gas mysteriously goes out. when the husband leaves and reappears.
The viewer realizes before the protagonist that the real creator of these deceptions is a person.. In one scene, she pleads with him, “Are you trying to tell me I’m crazy?” And her husband says, “Now maybe you’ll understand why I can’t let you date people,” driving her to despair. Dynamics very similar to another cinematic masterpiece, my midnight spy since 1960 with Doris Day and Rex Harrison. In both cases, the woman becomes an easy prey for this perfidious manipulation by the criminal husband, who is ready to do everything to subdue her to his power, causing confusion, loss of self-esteem, insecurity in her mental stability and dependence. And, unfortunately, as the daily news sadly reminds us, it must be said that times have not changed much.
Source: Elle