Imlisanen Jamir
When British playwright Patrick Hamilton wrote Gas Light in 1938, little did he know how often the word would be used in the 21st century. The word has recently been chosen as Merriam-Webster Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2022.
Gaslighting derives its origins from Hamilton's Victorian-era play set in London about a middle-class marriage based on lies and deceit. Lead character Jack Manningham seeks to convince his wife Bella that she is going insane, including by saying she is imagining the dimming of the gas light in their home.
Consider that “gaslighting” originally meant just that: light from burning gas. There was a time when that notion seemed life-changing. No more dim candles, no more uncertainty about where the lights are. You had gas lighting installed in your house and voila, permanent, bright light fixtures made the house useful at night. Sure there was some danger, but for many the convenience outweighed it.
Merriam-Webster's top definition for gaslighting is the psychological manipulation of a person, usually over an extended period of time, one that "causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories and typically leads to confusion, loss of confidence and self-esteem, uncertainty of one's emotional or mental stability, and a dependency on the perpetrator."
Lookups for the word on merriam-webster.com increased 1,740% in 2022 over the year before. But something else happened. There wasn't a single event that drove significant spikes in curiosity, as it usually goes with the chosen word of the year.
The gaslighting was pervasive.
"It's a word that has risen so quickly in the English language, and especially in the last four years, that it actually came as a surprise to me and to many of us," said Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster's editor at large, in an interview with The Associated Press.
How does a term with such an antiquated origin become the “word of the year” in this age?
Thanks to the internet and social media, if you want to you can be bombarded with claims that everyone and everything is being manipulated against you, even as the manipulators insist everything is fine. That’s gaslighting, without the gas (or the light). The problem, of course, is deciding who is gaslighting whom? If you are going to believe, say, ‘A’ is gaslighting you because ‘B’ says so, why isn’t it possible that ‘B’ is actually the culprit. Perhaps it’s best to take all claims of manipulation, fraud or other hidden plots with a sturdy dose of skepticism.
On the other hand, as Joseph Heller wrote in his biting satire, “Catch-22”: “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.”
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