NewsVine_Mariyam
Diamond Member
I know that there are many individuals who will reject out-of-hand the information that is being relayed in this article simply due to the references to Trump & his administration. I find this to be most unfortunate since the article does a fairly good job in my opinion of explaining the phenomenon of gaslighting as well as offering tips on how to counter it. Of course the Trump et al angle would require much more time and bandwidth than most have the time or stomach for
Ariel Leve offers strategies to stay resilient in the face of psychological abuse that distorts the truth â much like whatâs coming from Trumpâs administration
Right now, many Americans listening to their president are experiencing what I experienced frequently a child. Nothing means anything, and reality is being canceled. There is confusion, there is chaos, everything is upside down and inside out. When facts and truth are being discredited, how is it possible to know what to believe, especially when it comes from someone we expect to embody both ethics and etiquette?
Itâs obvious to those already initiated. To those new to the phenomena: the president and the current administration are gaslighting us. Itâs a term we are hearing a lot of right now.
The term âgaslightingâ refers to when someone manipulates you into questioning and second-guessing your reality. It derives from a 1944 movie â and the play and another film that preceded it â in which this happens to the heroine. What perhaps people donât understand is how to manage and cope with it. For me, all itâs very familiar. I know this behavior well and I know how to navigate it.
As a child, I was experiencing a world where there was no emotional safety while being consistently told that I had a beautiful and happy childhood and that I was ungrateful. What was I complaining about? Yet what I was exposed to caused me to feel unsafe. And those feelings had a verifiable origin. Whether it was witnessing violent arguments or being on the receiving end of inappropriate behavior, when I confronted my mother with the truth, it was denied; my reality was disavowed and asserting it would only instigate conflict. I was told that what I saw with my own eyes hadnât happened.
When I would confront my mother with things that she had said, or things that she had done, she would say I was making it up, that it was a lie. When I confronted her with facts, they were batted away. So it wasnât just that my reality was canceled, but that my perception of reality was overwritten.
As I wrote in my memoir, An Abbreviated Life, it wasnât the loudest and scariest explosions that caused the most damage. It wasnât the physical violence or the verbal abuse or the lack of boundaries and inappropriate behavior. What did the real damage was the denial that these incidents ever occurred.
Continued here
Ariel Leve offers strategies to stay resilient in the face of psychological abuse that distorts the truth â much like whatâs coming from Trumpâs administration
Right now, many Americans listening to their president are experiencing what I experienced frequently a child. Nothing means anything, and reality is being canceled. There is confusion, there is chaos, everything is upside down and inside out. When facts and truth are being discredited, how is it possible to know what to believe, especially when it comes from someone we expect to embody both ethics and etiquette?
Itâs obvious to those already initiated. To those new to the phenomena: the president and the current administration are gaslighting us. Itâs a term we are hearing a lot of right now.
The term âgaslightingâ refers to when someone manipulates you into questioning and second-guessing your reality. It derives from a 1944 movie â and the play and another film that preceded it â in which this happens to the heroine. What perhaps people donât understand is how to manage and cope with it. For me, all itâs very familiar. I know this behavior well and I know how to navigate it.
As a child, I was experiencing a world where there was no emotional safety while being consistently told that I had a beautiful and happy childhood and that I was ungrateful. What was I complaining about? Yet what I was exposed to caused me to feel unsafe. And those feelings had a verifiable origin. Whether it was witnessing violent arguments or being on the receiving end of inappropriate behavior, when I confronted my mother with the truth, it was denied; my reality was disavowed and asserting it would only instigate conflict. I was told that what I saw with my own eyes hadnât happened.
When I would confront my mother with things that she had said, or things that she had done, she would say I was making it up, that it was a lie. When I confronted her with facts, they were batted away. So it wasnât just that my reality was canceled, but that my perception of reality was overwritten.
As I wrote in my memoir, An Abbreviated Life, it wasnât the loudest and scariest explosions that caused the most damage. It wasnât the physical violence or the verbal abuse or the lack of boundaries and inappropriate behavior. What did the real damage was the denial that these incidents ever occurred.
Continued here
