I’m a forensic psychiatrist and here’s what gaslighting REALLY means – it’s a lot more dangerous than what people complain about on social media
- Forensic psychiatrist Dr Sohom Das, London, discusses what gaslighting is
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A criminal expert has dissected what gaslighting is and shared a real-life example he once witnessed during his career.
Dr Sohom Das, 44, is a forensic psychiatrist based in London, as well as a YouTube content creator. On his channel A Psych for Sore Minds, Dr Das covers a range of mental health and crime-related topics.
In a recent video, he broke down the meaning of the term ‘gaslighting’ – which has become widely socially used, not always correctly.
Speaking in the YouTube clip, which is titled Criminal PSYCHIATRIST dissects GASLIGHTING, Dr Das describes gaslighting as a ‘form of emotional abuse’.
He explains: ‘It’s basically centred around making the target doubt themselves and doubt their sanity. So it’s it’s aimed at decreasing [the victim’s] self confidence.
Gaslighting is a form of emotional abuse, according to forensic psychiatrist Dr Sohom Das who discussed the topic in a recent YouTube video (stock image)
‘It confuses and disorientates them [and] it also…pushes the power dynamic towards the abuser, so it’s easier for the abuser to continue doing this, and also to utilise other forms of abuse.
‘Basically, it becomes easier and easier to manipulate the target.’
He adds that the term gaslighting originated from a 1938 play of the same name, where a husband tries to convince the wife that she’s slowly turning insane so he can steal from her.
He does this while gradually decreases the flame on the gaslight, but when his wife says the light is getting dimmer, he denies it.
To describe how gaslighting could occur in a real-life setting, in the video, Dr Das discusses the case study of a patient he once assessed.
The woman, who he refers to as ‘Miss C’, had a diagnosis of schizophrenia and she was on trial facing grievous bodily harm.
He explains that Miss C had gone to a flat inhabited by drug dealers, and slashed one of them across the chest with a machete, causing a fairly severe injury.
Miss C had lived in that flat with her boyfriend until a few weeks’ earlier.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Qihk_mr5ZVM%3Frel%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26hl%3Den-US
Dr Sohom Das (pictured) is a London-based forensic psychiatrist who also makes YouTube content on his channel A Psych for Sore Minds
‘According to Miss C, just about a week before she moved out, the man [she attacked] was really threatening towards her because he was worried that she would blab to the police about all the drug dealing that was going on in this flat,’ explains Dr Das.
‘So he took her into a room, showed her his gun, and said basically if you snitch to the police then this gun is going to be for you and your family.’
GASLIGHTING IN RELATIONSHIPS
Gaslighting is a term that refers to trying to convince someone they’re 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 some mild form of gaslighting from time to time – refusing to hear what our partner has to say even if they’re in the right or persistently disagreeing over some minor quibble, even when you aren’t sure of your position.
In more extreme cases it can be a real form of abuse. When it’s done repeatedly, over a long period of time, it can have the effect of making someone doubt their own ideas about things – or even question their sanity. It can have a highly negative effect on a person’s self-esteem and confidence.
Source: Relate
According to the forensic psychiatrist, when he assessed Miss C, she said that she moved into the flat – which was full of drug dealers – with a boyfriend.
Over time, her boyfriend who used drugs started dealing them, and working for the men who lived in the flat.
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 started gaslighting Miss C.
They would have long, convoluted conversations with her about how her boyfriend was being unfaithful, showing 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, and insist that the conversations had never even taken place.
According to Dr Das: ‘They knew she had issues with mental illness, and that at times, she had gone in and out of psychosis….so they were using that to their advantage to disorientate and confuse her, and to let her doubt what was actually reality.’
In addition, they would give her free drugs, and then later demand money, saying they had never said she could have them for free.
‘So this was a diagnostically very messy, sticky, complicated case, because there were the symptoms of mental illness plus drug use,’ says Dr Das.
‘But by the time I assessed her, she was clean, and her mental health was much better. So the advice I gave to the court was that she didn’t need to be transferred to a psychiatric unit.
‘However, I explained the context of what happened. And the judge, I think, gave her a more lenient sentence and she would have otherwise got.’
Dr Sohom Das is on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, as well as YouTube.
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