Gaslighting, Psychopaths and the Social Construct

[Ichingcarpenter]

Last edited Sun Oct 18, 2015, 02:10 PM - Edit history (3)

Gaslighting is a form of emotional abuse where the abuser manipulates situations repeatedly to trick the victim into distrusting his or her own memory and perceptions. Gaslighting is an insidious form of abuse. It makes victims question the very instincts that they have counted on their whole lives, making them unsure of anything. Gaslighting makes it very likely that victims will believe whatever their abusers tell them regardless as to their own experience of the situation. Gaslighting often precedes other types of emotional and physical abuse because the victim of gaslighting is more likely to remain in other abusive situations as well.

The term "gaslighting" comes from the 1938 British play "Gas Light" wherein a husband attempts to drive his wife crazy using a variety of tricks causing her to question her own perceptions and sanity. Gas Light was made into a movie both in 1940 and 1944.

Trailer

The Film won 2 Academy Awards and nominated for 5 more


Full Movie' of the 1944 redention

http://ffilms.org/gaslight-1944/



Gaslighting is any behavior or imparting of information that has the effect of making the target distrust their own perception. If you feel cold and told it’s hot, you start to doubt your reality checking faculty. Gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse that involves withholding of factual information from and/or providing false information to the target. Having the gradual effect of making the victim anxious, confused and less able to trust his/her own memory and perception.

Gaslighting Techniques and Examples

Gaslighting is emotional abuse that aims to make victims doubt their own perceptions and memories. Find out if you are being gaslighted in your relationship.There are numerous gaslighting techniques which can make gaslighting more difficult to identify. Gaslighting techniques are used to hide truths that the abuser doesn't want the victim to realize. Gaslighting abuse can be perpetrated by either women or men or even in a national context
by those in authority

For example in the national context soldiers that told about torture abuse that they saw in Iraq were sent to Germany for psychological evaluation.

http://www.comw.org/warreport/iraqarchiveabuse.html

"Withholding" is one gaslighting technique where the abuser feigns a lack of understanding, refuses to listen and declines sharing his emotions. Gaslighting examples of this would be:1

"I'm not listening to that crap again tonight."
"You're just trying to confuse me."
Another gaslighting technique is "countering," where an abuser will vehemently call into question a victim's memory in spite of the victim having remembered things correctly.

"Think about when you didn't remember things correctly last time."

"You thought that last time and you were wrong."

These techniques throw the victim off the intended subject matter and make them question their own motivations and perceptions rather than the issue at hand.

It is then that the abuser will start to question the experiences, thoughts and opinions more globally through statements said in anger like:

"You see everything in the most negative way."

"Well you obviously never believed in me then."

"You have an overactive imagination."

"Blocking" and "diverting" are gaslighting techniques whereby the abuser again changes the conversation from the subject matter to questioning the victim's thoughts and controlling the conversation. Gaslighting examples of this include:

"I'm not going through that again."

"Where did you get a crazy idea like that?"

"Quit bitching."

"You're hurting me on purpose."

"Trivializing" is another way of gaslighting. It involves making the victim believe his or her thoughts or needs aren't important, such as:

"You're going to let something like that come between us?"

Abusive "forgetting" and "denial" can also be forms of gaslighting. In this technique, the abuser pretends to forget things that have really occurred; the abuser may also deny things like promises that have been made that are important to the victim. An abuser might say,

"What are you talking about?"

"I don't have to take this."
"You're making that up."

Some gaslighters will then mock the victim for their "wrongdoings" and "misperceptions."

Gaslighting Psychology

The gaslighting techniques are used in conjunction to try to make the victim doubt their own thoughts, memories and actions. Soon the victim is scared to bring up any topic at all for fear they are "wrong" about it or don't remember the situation correctly.

The worst gaslighters will even create situations that allow for the usage of gaslighting techniques. An example of this is taking the victim's keys from the place where they are always left, making the victim think she has misplaced them. Then "helping" the victim with her "bad memory" find the keys.

http://www.healthyplace.com/abuse/emotional-psychological-abuse/gaslighting-definition-techniques-and-being-gaslighted/





“We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

Karl Rove........... Gaslighting


Psychopaths

Psychopathy is a psychological condition based on well-established diagnostic criteria, which include lack of remorse and empathy, a sense of grandiosity, superficial charm, conning and manipulative behavior, and refusal to take responsibility for one's actions, among others. Psychopaths are not all the same; particular aspects may predominate in different people. And, although some psychopaths are violent men (and women) with long criminal histories, not all are. It's important to understand that psychopathic behavior and affect exist on a continuum; there are those who fall into the grey area between "normal" people and true psychopaths.




The question, then, is whether it is reasonable to believe that people with serious abnormalities in the way they interact with the world can be found running for (and winning) office. However unsettling as this may be, the answer seems to be yes. It's possible for psychopaths to be found anywhere -- including city hall or Washington, D.C. Remember, psychopaths are not delusional or psychotic; in fact, two of the hallmarks of psychopathy are a calculating mind and a seemingly easy charm.

In his landmark book on psychopathy, The Mask of Sanity, researcher Hervey Cleckley theorized that some people with the core attributes of psychopathy -- egocentricity, lack of remorse, superficial charm -- could be found in nearly every walk of life and at every level, including politics. Robert Hare, perhaps the leading expert on the disorder and the person who developed the most commonly used test for diagnosing psychopathy, has noted that psychopaths generally have a heightened need for power and prestige -- exactly the type of urges that make politics an attractive calling.



Doubtless, it's easier to see some leaders as psychopaths than it is others. Presumably, no one would dispute the notion that Hitler and Stalin were psychopaths at the extreme end of the spectrum: completely unconstrained by empathy or guilt and willing to say or do anything to accomplish their goals. This, though, reinforces the perception of psychopaths as out-of-control madmen who are evil to the core. Might there be other, more mainstream political leaders who have psychopathic traits but fall closer to the "normal" range? Some have certainly thought so.

In 2003, neuropsychologist Paul Brok argued that Prime Minister Tony Blair was a "plausible psychopath" who was ruthlessly ambitious, egocentric, and manipulative. Respected psychologist and researcher David Lykken has written:

Tony has regaled us with a long essay claiming that the escalating slaughter in Iraq has nothing to do with anything he and George did back in 2003. It would all have happened anyway. Meanwhile new memos prove it was a lie and was planning for war a year before
.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3277402/Smoking-gun-emails-reveal-Blair-s-deal-blood-George-Bush-Iraq-war-forged-YEAR-invasion-started.html

Tony Blair: A Study In Psychopathy

http://www.zengardner.com/tony-blair-a-study-in-psychopathy/



If we can believe his biographer, Robert Caro [...] Lyndon Johnson exemplified this syndrome. He was relatively fearless, shameless, abusive of his wife and underlings, and willing to do or say almost anything required to attain his ends.











Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?


Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price–we think the price is worth it.
—60 Minutes (5/12/96)

If that's not questionable response on the scale then I don't know what is







Industries and psychopaths

Most......................................Least


Surgeons?......... Well think about it what it takes to cut into a person's body and the adulation and money you get. Dr. Ben Carson and his history
comments confirm this one. I have no doubt that you can name psychopath on this list of the top ten.




Capitalism is a system that requires the majority to have no control over their lives and to believe that this condition is normal. Therefore, all reactions to inequality and deprivation must be viewed as signs of personal inadequacy, biological defect, mental illness — anything other than reasonable responses to unreasonable conditions.

What’s the diagnosis for a sick society? We know what’s wrong. Most people are kept in sick social conditions so that a few can maintain their wealth and power. What is the treatment? Putting human needs first would eliminate most human misery. Who will deliver the medicine? The majority must organize to take collective control of society and this is the social constuct
we must realize.



“All the gang of those who rule us,

Hope our quarrels never stop.

Helping them to split and fool us,

So they can remain on top.”

Solidarity poem" http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/solidarity-song/


To conclude, when the American psychiatric community reassigned the definitions of sociopaths, psychopathic behavior in 2008 [ http://psych.org ] and expanded the scope of these behavioral disorders, they finally rectified a grave injustice. Mainly, once and for all identifying that today and throughout history, many people that were not mentally fit to lead in business, politics, and other fields were, are allowed to run amuck.

This new insight gives a great responsibility, We must all now recognize this illness for what it is to Mankind, a plague, and We must seek to purge it from Our own lives as much as possible.

Perhaps then and only then will society be healthy, peaceful and truly reach the pinnacles of Our potential.

Paraphrasing Thomas Sheridan;

“The lumbering robot, the bag of skin, encapsulating DNA, only to be pass on by reproduction, then the body turns to fertilizer.

That’s how the psychopath feels, that is their internal view. They hates Us because of Our souls, they know that We have a higher sense of self, one that they will never have, their sense of self and soul is broken. They will never reach as morally high as We will, but they surely can drag Us to their level.

“Your job is to acquire this knowledge of what psychopaths are and how they function, and then to get away and get on with Your life. That’s it.

Then the psychopaths - from the ones in Your personal life to the ones in power - are finished.

Checkmate.”




For further study see Ireland's Thomas Sheridan and others take on the conversation. .............. http://amadorcountynews.org/Psychopaths%20in%20Public%20Life/Psychopaths%20in%20Public%20Life.html

[Triana]

1. GREAT post. Bookmarking.

[merrily]

13. Me, too! Belated Bookmark!

[glinda]

2. Have thought about this a great deal in regards to some Politicians and related Corporates.

There is this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_triad

and there is a term for when there is more than one together. This is what I think is happening. They are attracting each other.

[Ichingcarpenter]

9. I was developing this post right before the Blair/Bush memo story broke

and included the Blair part when the story broke which I guess how synchronicity works sometimes. What got me started was watching Gas Light the night before.

I like Thomas Sheridan idea of ''pronto psychopaths'' that might me used to describe the triad in your link which he explains in his talks.

Blair is a classic example of a psychopath, he fooled me with his charm at first as psychopaths do. His development and growth
in the Labour Party is a fascinating study of how he was nurtured and promoted by neo liberals and the powers behind the curtain....... and to be sure, we have our share on this side of the pond and even in our own party..but I an't naming names


BTW......... in one of the links One can take a online test made by a Oxford psychologist to see your own traits for psychopathic tendencies . I scored a 27.


http://psychopath.channel4.com/quizzes.html

[bbgrunt]

3. great post! We as a society have been continually gaslighted and

must find a way to wake up.

[snagglepuss]

4. Highly recommended. So insightful. Thanks so much for posting.

k and r

[Mnemosyne]

5. Been there, done that. KnR! Excellent OP! nt

[Igel]

6. There is a reading under which Rove's "create our own reality" is correct.

Consider Iraq. Bush-Cheney acted and changed reality. The reality that existed before was not the reality that existed after. Their first reality included Saddam Hussein. Their second reality included him on the run. Their third reality had him dead. No need to pick those particular points in space-time to call different realities.

When a reality was somehow unacceptable, they reacted and changed reality again. Because they were actors of history--a pretentious and pompous way of putting it, but not all that inaccurate--by acting and getting others to do things the facts on the ground changed. We all do that, to be honest: If you hate your reality in which you're married to an abusive spouse you change your reality by, presumably, getting a divorce. Or killing the abusive spouse. Or running away. In other words, by acting in some way.

The reading most want seems to be a Soviet-style Potemkinesque "creating a new reality," and there's no claim that this can't or hasn't been done. But Rove's context beyond just the oft-cited phrase denies that reading or at least makes it difficult to maintain for this particular utterance. This relies crucially on asserting that "reality" has a singular meaning and that we all live in the same experienced reality which exists as a continuum. That seems to be an assertion at odds with his clear intent.

Most people actually agree with Cheney but have to take draconian steps to avoid thinking they are. The "neo-cons" upset the Middle East, they say. This is true; Obama, of course, suddenly has to be classed as a neo-con or utterly and incompetently out of touch with his administration's actions. By upsetting the ME, reality was altered. A new one was created, one that is hardly fictitious or imaginary (were it so).

[appalachiablue]

7. K & R. Excellent OP with info, resources & perspectives on psychopaths & manipulators.

[bananas]

8. "Who you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?" nt

[Judi Lynn]

10. Really painful for the victims. Sadistic beyond endurance. Thanks for this exceptional article. n/t

[yurbud]

11. crucial reading thanks for the post

[yurbud]

12. this is painfully obvious in foreign policy debates

Last edited Tue Oct 20, 2015, 04:49 PM - Edit history (1)

Politicians say we are protecting ourselves or helping the people in the other country when in reality, we are killing them to steal their shit or replace their government with one more obedient to banks, oil companies, and other transnational corporations.

By that measure, Samantha Power, with her "responsibility to protect" shtick is one of the worst, putting a humanitarian bow on slaughter and chaos.

People like Karl Rove are easier to deal with because he WANTS us to notice his tricks and fear him.

Powers and her ilk simply want their gaslighting to work.

[yurbud]

14. Great post. The internet gives us a chance to compare notes

and see them for who they are.

Eventually, we have to figure out how to translate that into how we pick our "leaders" and how to cage or at least bell the psychopaths in corporate America.