Discussion Gaslighting.....Who?....What?.......Why?

[IsThisTheEnd?]

Gaslighting maybe I'm very naive but why? I don't understand this, it's almost like a perverse very sneeky pleasure, I just don't understand maybe someone can explain why they do this and why they get plessure.

 

[VIBRITANNIA]

if i had to guess, it's probably to make the victim think that whatever they're going through isn't as bad as they feel it is. or, if they're gaslighted to the point where they feel their experience wasn't even real, then they can't ever tell anybody about it.

 

[Pryras]

Some people just enjoy making others question they're sanity because they like playing mind games. Other people do it to invalidate someone's experience of an event or to save their own ass by trivializing the victims understanding of what happened.

 

[Escargot Shorts]

i wouldn't look at it as some one-dimensional as simple pleasure (although some ppl think deceit for its own sake is really funny) but usually proper gaslighting (and not like...the way its definition has been morphed as a synonym for 'lying in general') is an abuse tactic to maintain either a power dynamic or serve a means to an end by forcing you to doubt your perceptions, as it's already been said

 

[dieornottodie]

dont let urself be bothered by the other it is in a way giving points to the abuser,
evil exists in the world end of the story
usually people do what they do in order to get what they want

 

[IsThisTheEnd?]

yes but they also have a very limited amount of people they can tell about it, it's all done in secret and requires what seems like a lot of effort on there part and you must have a mind that gets pleasure from suffering and this is frowned upon.

 

[Deleted member 1465]

One reason is because they cannot face a reality that they can do nothing about, so they rewrite the narrative in their heads and present it back to you as the way things are. Sometimes a consensus supports this false narrative because it's what they all want to hear.

 

[Deleted member 17949]

It's probably often to save their own ass in some way. By manipulating someone into thinking your actions or their consequences aren't that bad or aren't your fauly you can make them less confrontational towards you. Very common thing with abusers, stopping their victims from wanting to leave by convincing them that they are just being unreasonable with their fears and upset.