A crime expert analyzed what gaslighting is and shared a real-life example he saw once during his career.
dr Sohom Das, 44, is a forensic psychiatrist based in London and a creator of YouTube content. On his channel A Psych for Sore Minds, Dr. That a range of issues related to mental health and crime.
In a recent video, he broke down the meaning of the term “gaslighting” – which is now widely used, not always correctly.
In the YouTube clip titled Criminal PSYCHIATRIST dissects GASLIGHTING, Dr. Gaslighting as a “form of emotional abuse”.
He explains, “It’s basically about getting the target person to doubt themselves and their sanity. So it aims to reduce it [the victim’s] confidence.
According to forensic psychiatrist Dr. Gaslighting is a form of emotional abuse (stock image) by Sohom Das, who discussed the issue in a recent YouTube video.
“It confuses and disorients them [and] it… also pushes the power dynamic toward the abuser, making it easier for the abuser to continue this and use other forms of abuse as well.
“Basically, it’s getting easier and easier to manipulate the target.”
He adds that the term gaslighting comes from a 1938 play of the same name, in which a husband tries to convince the wife that she is going insane so he can rob her.
He does so while gradually decreasing the flame on the gaslight, but when his wife says the light is fading, he denies it.
To describe how gaslighting can occur in a real-world environment, Dr. The one in the video is the case study of a patient he once examined.
The woman he refers to as “Miss C” was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was on trial for aggravated assault.
He explains that Ms. C. went into an apartment occupied by drug dealers and hit one of them across the chest with a machete, causing a fairly serious injury.
Ms C. had lived in this apartment with her boyfriend until a few weeks ago.
dr Sohom Das (pictured) is a London-based forensic psychiatrist who also creates YouTube content on his channel A Psych for Sore Minds
‘According to Miss C, the man was the man about a week before she moved out [she attacked] was really threatening to her because he was afraid she would tell the police about all the drug dealing that’s going on in that apartment,” explains Dr. The.
“So he put her in a room and showed her his gun and basically said if you report to the police then this gun will be for you and your family.”
GASLIGHTING IN RELATIONS
Gaslighting is a term that refers to trying to convince someone they are wrong about something, even when they aren’t.
Most commonly, it takes the form of frequently disagreeing with someone or refusing to listen to their point of view.
Many of us might be guilty of a mild form of gaslighting from time to time—refusing to hear what our partner has to say even when they’re right, or constantly disagreeing over small quibbles, even if you are not sure about your point of view.
In more extreme cases, it can be a real form of abuse. If done repeatedly over a long period of time, it can make someone question their own ideas about things – or even question their sanity. It can have a very negative impact on a person’s self-esteem and confidence.
Source: Relate
According to the forensic psychiatrist, when he examined Miss C., she said she moved with a friend into the apartment, which was full of drug dealers.
Over time, her boyfriend, who used drugs, began dealing and working for the men who lived in the apartment.
dr Das says, “Basically, they wanted her out of the house because they didn’t particularly like her and because they didn’t want her to know about the activities.”
And so they began, Miss C.
They would have long, tangled conversations with her about how her boyfriend was unfaithful, show her photos of him with other women, and texts they said he had sent them.
Later in the day, they would delete the messages and photos, insisting the talks never happened.
according to dr Das: ‘They knew she was struggling with mental illness and that she was going into intermittent psychosis … so they used that to their advantage to disorient and confuse her and make her question what was really reality.’
Also, they gave her medicines for free and later demanded money, saying they never said she could have them for free.
“So that was a diagnostically very messy, tricky, complicated case because there were the symptoms of mental illness plus drug use,” says Dr. The.
“But when I examined her, she was clean and her sanity was much better. So I advised the court that she did not need to be transferred to a psychiatric ward.
“I did, however, explain the context of what happened. And the judge, I think, gave her a lighter sentence than she would have gotten otherwise.’
dr Sohom That’s it TwitterInstagram and TikTok as well as YouTube.