
For example, they might say, “That is just nonsense you read on the internet.

Diverting: With this technique, a person changes the focus of a discussion by questioning the other person’s credibility.They may do this by pretending to forget what happened, saying they did not do it, or blaming their behavior on someone else. Denial: Denial involves a person refusing to take responsibility for their actions.They may accuse them of being “too sensitive” or overreacting in response to valid and reasonable concerns. Trivializing: This occurs when a person belittles or disregards how someone else feels.For example, they might say, “Now you are just confusing me,” or “I do not know what you are talking about.” Withholding: This involves someone pretending they do not understand the conversation, or refusing to listen, to make a person doubt themselves.They may say things such as, “Are you sure about that? You have a bad memory,” or “I think you are forgetting what really happened.” Countering: This is when someone questions a person’s memory.Send us feedback about these examples.According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, gaslighting can happen in a variety of ways. These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'gaslighting.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Robyn Dixon, Washington Post, 8 July 2023 See More Kalhan Rosenblatt, NBC News, 10 July 2023 But the national gaslighting also seems to be working, by putting Russia’s shocked population back into its usual passive mode, and portraying Putin as stronger than ever. 2023 Jonah hill perfectly illustrates how patriarchy adapts and the millennial iteration relies on emotional abuse and gaslighting. Amy Westervelt, The New Republic, 19 July 2023 Another common barrier to endometriosis diagnosis and treatment is medical gaslighting, which occurs when a person’s healthcare concerns are dismissed by a provider. 2023 And for all the gaslighting, the message seems awfully clear. 2023 For those who've experienced a narcissistic relationship, one of the biggest challenges − more than even the gaslighting, devaluing and lack of empathy − can be accepting that a narcissistic personality style is extremely resistant to change.

2023 The gaslighting has demoralized those Republicans who remain immune, to say nothing of independents and Democrats. 2023 On the other hand, red flags in a relationship consist of more severe behaviors, like gaslighting, manipulation, general rudeness, lack of boundaries, and emotional unavailability, just to name a few. Noun The diagnostic odyssey-or the journey to a diagnosis for a rare disease patient-takes, on average, four to nine years, and can include medical gaslighting, complete denial by doctors, and wrong diagnoses. Its increasing use in many contexts contributed to making gaslighting Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year for 2022. Unlike lying, which tends to be between individuals, and fraud, which tends to involve organizations, gaslighting applies in both personal and political contexts, and is found in formal and technical writing as well as in colloquial use. The idea of a deliberate conspiracy to mislead has made gaslighting useful in describing lies that are part of a larger plan. In this use, the word is at home with other terms relating to modern forms of deception and manipulation, such as fake news and deepfake. In the current century, the word has come to refer also to something simpler and broader: “the act or practice of grossly misleading someone, especially for a personal advantage” (sense 2). When gaslighting was first used in the mid-20th century, it referred to a kind of deception like that in the plots mentioned above (sense 1). His mysterious activities in the attic cause the house’s gas lights to dim, but he insists to his wife that the lights are not dimming and that she can’t trust her own perceptions. The origins of gaslighting are colorful: the term comes from the title of a 1938 play and the movies based on that play, the plots of which involve a man attempting to make his wife believe that she is going insane.

The Origin and Semantic Development of Gaslighting
