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Gaslighting feels like a new problem, but it has been studied for decades.

The way psychologists originally used the term gaslighting is quite different from today.

Changes to how we think of gaslighting are related to changes in how mental health problems are treated.

This older version of gaslighting still occasionally occurs.

Today, the term "gaslighting" is usually used to describe a pattern of psychological abuse where the gaslighter manipulates a target into doubting their own sense of reality. Over the last 10 years, gaslighting has caught the attention of psychologists and the public alike. What most people don't know is that the term gaslighting has been around for much longer than 10 years, and its meaning has changed a great deal in that time.

The etymology of gaslighting as a term for psychological abuse can be traced back to a play written in 1938 by Patrick Hamilton. Lovers of old movies and students of gaslighting are probably familiar with the 1944 Hollywood adaptation of the play, Gaslight, starring Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer, and released by MGM. Less familiar, even to modern-day experts on gaslighting, is the earlier British film adaptation of Hamilton's play, released in 1940 and directed by Thorold Dickinson.

The play, and both film adaptations, have more in common than not. All three take place in 1880s London, and feature an adulterous husband who connivingly convinces his wife that she is delusional, and repeatedly threatens her with institutionalization in a psychiatric hospital. In the meantime, he openly flirts with their maid, and sneaks out at night to rummage through the blocked-off attic of the couple's home. He suspects there are tremendously valuable jewels hidden in the attic that........

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