Have you ever been told, “that never happened,” when you clearly remember that it did? Or been made to feel that your memory, judgment or perception cannot be trusted? This form of psychological manipulation is known as gaslighting.
The word has a fascinating connection to cinema. It originated from Gas Light, a 1938 play by British playwright Patrick Hamilton, and became widely associated with George Cukor’s 1944 film Gaslight, starring Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer and Joseph Cotten.
In the film, Bergman plays Paula, a woman whose husband, Gregory, deliberately manipulates her surroundings and behavior to make her believe that she is losing her mind. One of his tricks involves the gaslights in their London home. These were literally lamps that burned manufactured gas rather than using electricity. Gas was supplied through pipes to the house, and when more gas was being consumed elsewhere, the pressure or available flow could drop, causing other gaslights to become noticeably dimmer. They were called “gaslights” simply because gas, rather than electricity, was used to produce the light.
Whenever Gregory secretly enters the attic to search for the jewels, he turns on the gaslights there, causing the gaslights downstairs to dim. When Paula notices the change, Gregory insists that she is imagining it.
He also moves objects, denies things she remembers and treats her concerns as evidence that something is wrong with her. His objective is to make her doubt her own reality and become dependent on him.
Interestingly, the word “gaslighting” does not actually appear in the play or film. Its use as a verb developed later, with recorded usage dating to the early 1960s. It eventually came to describe a broader pattern of manipulating someone into questioning their memories, perceptions or understanding of events.
Gaslighting in the corporate world
Gaslighting can also occur at work, particularly where there is a significant power imbalance between a superior and subordinate. A manager might deny giving an instruction, blame an employee for following directions, dismiss legitimate concerns as “overreaction,” rewrite the history of a project, or claim that an employee “always gets things wrong” despite evidence to the contrary.
For example, a superior may publicly criticize an employee for missing a deadline, while privately having changed the deadline earlier. When the employee points this out, the manager responds, “I never said that. You must have misunderstood me.”
Repeated behavior of this kind can cause employees to question their competence, memory and judgment. Recent organizational research distinguishes workplace gaslighting from ordinary disagreement or legitimate performance feedback. Evidence-based criticism is not gaslighting. The distinction lies in the pattern of trivializing concerns, distorting reality and undermining a person’s confidence, often within a power imbalance.
What began with a flickering gaslight in a 1944 movie has become a word for a very real form of manipulation. Whether at home or in the workplace, gaslighting can slowly make a person question their memory, judgment and perception, even when their recollection is correct.
