{"id":10190,"date":"2020-01-06T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-06T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/?p=10190"},"modified":"2020-01-06T03:08:57","modified_gmt":"2020-01-06T03:08:57","slug":"the-social-basis-of-psychological-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/2020\/01\/06\/the-social-basis-of-psychological-abuse\/","title":{"rendered":"Best of 2019: The Social Basis of Psychological Abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n Paige L. Sweet, <\/span>“The Sociology of Gaslighting,” American Sociological Review<\/em>,<\/a><\/span> 2019<\/span><\/div>\n\n
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Photo by Pablo Varela<\/a>, CC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Originally posted November 5, 2019.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The term \u2018gaslighting\u2019 earned its name by way of the 1944 film, Gaslight<\/em>. In the film, an antagonist secretly brightens and dims his home\u2019s lights, making his wife doubt her sanity and sense of reality. Despite the cinematic origins of its label, this form of abuse<\/a> is experienced by many women. Though psychologists have extensively investigated the subject, little attention has been paid to the role that underlying social characteristics may play. In new research<\/a>, Paige Sweet<\/a> fills this void by revealing how social characteristics affect individual experiences of gaslighting within domestic abuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>Through a series of life course interviews, Sweet finds that abusers mobilize gender stereotypes, racial stereotypes, and victims\u2019 institutional settings in order to manipulate their victims’ sense of reality. Women of different racial and social backgrounds experience gaslighting in different forms; whereas an abuser might prey upon a black woman\u2019s fear of becoming a stereotypical \u201cbaby mama,\u201d another might threaten an undocumented Hispanic woman with deportation. Despite differences, abusers in Sweet’s study utilized \u201ccrazy-making\u201d tactics for all women — drawing on stereotypes that men are rational, while women are irrational. “Micro tactics of abuse are situated in macro conditions of inequality.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sweet\u2019s argument that \u201cmicro tactics of abuse are situated in macro conditions of inequality\u201d  helps us to understand why gaslighting can be so effective at stripping down one\u2019s sense of reality; by drawing attention to existing power structures and inequalities, abusers are able to gain a greater sense of legitimacy and tailor their tactics to a victim\u2019s personal social experiences. It is crucial that we understand the forces that underlie gaslighting in order to more effectively recognize symptoms of abuse, and subsequently support the victims who experience it. 
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paige L. Sweet, “The Sociology of Gaslighting,” American Sociological Review, 2019 Originally posted November 5, 2019. The term \u2018gaslighting\u2019 earned its name by way of the 1944 film, Gaslight. In the film, an antagonist secretly brightens and dims his home\u2019s lights, making his wife doubt her sanity and sense of reality. Despite the cinematic origins […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2020,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,55,33,13,14],"tags":[1030,29,125544,37337,26856,100841,2631,122325,122323,122324,122322,37335,27650,37334,89,37332,565,122328,675,37333,102652,4225,105180,82,120,176,727,407,133],"class_list":["post-10190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime","category-gender","category-health","category-inequality","category-race","tag-abuse","tag-class","tag-crazy","tag-crime","tag-deportation","tag-domestic-abuse","tag-domestic-violence","tag-gas-light","tag-gas-lighting","tag-gaslight","tag-gaslighting","tag-gender","tag-gender-stereotypes","tag-health","tag-immigration","tag-inequality","tag-mental-health","tag-psychological-abuse","tag-psychology","tag-race","tag-racial-discrimination","tag-racial-inequality","tag-racial-stereotypes","tag-racism","tag-sex","tag-sexuality","tag-social-class","tag-stereotypes","tag-violence"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2020"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10190"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10315,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10190\/revisions\/10315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}