gaslight
gaslight – verbo transitivo
gaslighting – sostantivo
The fact that Rob is attempting to gaslight Helen into believing that she’s on the verge of a breakdown is beyond the pale.
Gaslighting is one of the most extreme, dangerous and effective forms of emotional and psychological abuse and is mostly carried out intentionally.
Are you in a gaslighting relationship? Here is how to tell.
Gli appassionati del serial radiofonico inglese The Archers (“una storia quotidiana di gente di campagna”, in onda dal 1951) sono stati scioccati dalla recente sceneggiatura che ha visto i tentativi messi in atto dal “cattivo”, tale Rob Titchener, per isolare e soggiogare la moglie, Helen. Al culmine del dramma, lei lo accoltella durante un furioso litigio. Non lo sapevo, ma il comportamento manipolatorio del personaggio maschile ha un nome: gaslighting, una forma di abuso riconosciuto e studiato da anni.
Origini del termine
Il termine gaslighting fa riferimento al film del 1944 Gaslight (noto in Italia col titolo Angoscia) con Ingrid Bergman e Charles Boyer. Dopo le nozze, il marito mette in atto il suo piano diabolico (ad esempio alterando le luci delle lampade a gas della casa) per cercare di convincere la giovane moglie di essere sull’orlo della pazzia, allo scopo di impossessarsi dei suoi beni. Il comportamento manipolatorio e il termine che lo identifica sono riconosciuti in psicologia sin dagli anni 1960, ma recenti avvenimenti, come l’inclusione nella soap opera inglese, hanno portato il fenomeno a conoscenza di un pubblico più vasto.
gaslight – transitive verb
gaslighting – noun
The fact that Rob is attempting to gaslight Helen into believing that she’s on the verge of a breakdown is beyond the pale.
Gaslighting is one of the most extreme, dangerous and effective forms of emotional and psychological abuse and is mostly carried out intentionally.
Are you in a gaslighting relationship? Here is how to tell.
Fans of the long-running UK radio soap The Archers (“an everyday story of country folk”) have been gripped by a recent storyline featuring the attempts of all-round villain Rob Titchener to isolate and control his wife Helen, culminating in a furious row in the course of which she stabs him. This kind of psychological manipulation has, I was intrigued to learn, a name: it is called gaslighting and is a recognised form of abuse.
Origins
The term gaslighting is a reference to the 1944 film Gaslight (based on an earlier play) starring Ingrid Bergman as the young opera singer whose new husband, played by Charles Boyer, tries to convince her she is mad in order to get his hands on her jewels. The term has been used in psychology since the 1960s, but recent events in the popular rural soap have definitley brought it to a wider audience.
