Gaslighting is the deliberate denial of the truth by a person or party who knows the truth, in order to cause psychological discomfort, confusion, or harm to another person or party by causing them to doubt their senses or sanity.
Gaslighting is distinctly different from lying. People lie to others for many reasons, lying isn’t gaslighting.
Gaslighting requires that the person being lied to has proof of the truth (proof via their own senses or an established, trusted, and reliable source) but are lied to with the sole purpose of causing them psychological pain by making them deny the veracity of their own senses or trusted sources.
It is a particularly sadistic thing when done to a trusting person susceptible to it.
As we have seen, in people susceptible to gaslighting (pliable, trusting, or otherwise easily manipulated people) it can cause severe mental pain, even to the point of insanity.
In people who are aware they are being gaslighted, it justifiably causes anger, since it is a sadistic assault, meant to cause pain, and is rightly perceived by the subject as such.
As another poster said, just watching the movie “Gaslighting” explains it pretty well.
The “another poster” is me.
And the movie explains it perfectly. In fact, I believe the term, “gaslighting”, came about because of that movie, and never existed before that time.
(The movie is SO good!)
And mentally ill people can do this very thing and cause the same effect to the victim without even knowing it because they really believe it. Doesn't change the result at all a spouse can drive one mad. Been there.