I’m pleased to say the film is far richer than I expected and worthy of renewed attention on its own merits. I was drawn to Gaslight not only to better understand the origins of the expression, but also because it features Ingrid Bergman, one of my favourite classical Hollywood actresses, in a performance that won her her first Best Actress Oscar. In this sense, liberals said Trump gaslit his supporters, and conservatives complain that the mainstream media gaslights citizens. Although use of the term has its origins in pop psychology and feminist criticism, more recently, the term is widely deployed by both the contemporary Left and Right, especially in the context of US politics, as an accusation of the psychological manipulation of a targeted populace.
Over the years, but especially over the past six or seven, the term “gaslighting” has come to be used colloquially to describe a pattern of psychological manipulation and torment, in which someone makes someone else feel like they are going crazy, such as a cruel, controlling husband driving his wife to question her reality and thereby keep her vulnerable. Gaslight is an important film that’s probably less seen than you’d think given the popularity of the expression the title spawned.
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