Gaslighting as a strategy of the narcissistic personality disorder holder

manipulation, power, and the fabrication of truths

Abstract

This article analyzes gaslighting as a form of psychological and emotional manipulation used by the subject with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) to gain control over the other. In an abusive relationship with a narcissist, one observes not only emotional suffering and psychological disturbance, but also the way in which power is exercised, fabricating wills to truth, uniting the real and the imaginary, in which the narcissist maintains a position of power within the relationship. In this way, gaslighters manipulate their victims, controlling them through the inversion of truths, silencing, triangulation, minimization of the victim’s feelings, emotional blackmail, among others. In this sense, the objective is to understand the phenomenon of gaslighting based on discourses produced on media platforms by two specialists on the subject. This is also a research study based on Michel Foucault’s archaeogenealogical method, emphasizing wills to truth, memory, and power/knowledge relations. Based on the studies carried out, it was found that the discursive practices exercised by the subject with NPD need to become known so that, through knowledge, it is possible to identify the psychological violence committed and obtain the power of choice, since it is through awareness that this type of violence which increases every day in contemporary societies can be fought.