Joe would always accuse him of overreacting, but it seemed to his roommate that it wasn’t the case and that his concerns and reactions were legitimate.Īccording to the American Psychological Association, gaslighting is manipulating “ another person into doubting his or her perceptions, experiences, or understanding of events.“ When he finally opened up about his relationship issues to his roommate, things started becoming clear. He was confused by what would happen and started getting anxious. It seemed to him as if he was walking on eggshells around Joe, and he would try extremely hard to be the best partner to her but would always be wrong. He would ruin date night by not choosing the right restaurant or be jealous of Joe texting a coworker late at night due to his poor self-esteem. However, as their relationship progressed, it seemed Sam was making a lot of mistakes. She would flaunt him in front of her friends and tell everyone how amazing he was. Sam’s girlfriend Joe called him his Prince Charming and savior. This is a classic example of gaslighting. He maintained that they never got into an argument that night. When Lara mentioned his behavior, he told her that she had drunk too much alcohol and probably mixed up their date night with a bad dream. The following day, he pretended that everything was alright. One fine day, Lara and her beau were on a date that went terribly wrong, and he was rude to her and verbally abused her, calling her names. However, as time passed, things did not seem so rosy anymore. It seemed like he was head over heels in love with her. He adored her and spoiled her with gifts, surprise trips, and fancy dates.
So, I believe that 'gaslight' can be used either as 'gaslighted' or as 'gaslit' when being used in any past tense.Lara had met the perfect match. Still, as long as most people use the same grammar, then grammatically incorrect English is still relevant and legitimate because it's understood. An example is the wrong but popular "What had happened was" instead of the correct "This is what happened", "What happened is" or- without applying a strict grammatical lens- "This was what happened" (not to mention my first words in this comment of "I'm not an English major or anything" rather than the correct "I'm not an English major or any such thing"). Of course, currently, a lot of spoken English is grammatically incorrect, some only so if you apply a very strict grammatical magnifying glass. She had gaslit everyone at work before the end of her first week there." She has gaslit everyone I know" or "Avoid her.
She gaslighted me in the past." "Avoid her. Since the word 'light' is contained in 'gaslight', it would be reasonable to assume that the word 'gaslight' would be used in the same way: "Avoid her.
The word 'light' can be used as a noun as in "Can you hand me a cigarette and a light?" However, when it is used as a verb in the present tense- as in "My recollection is that she used store-bought lamps to light the walkway"- it is used therefore as a verb in the past tense, "My recollection is that she lighted the walkway with store-bought lamps." However, the tense of 'light' and 'lighted' changes when the same sentence is used this way: "My recollection is that she had lit the walkway with store-bought lamps." The "had" changes the verb tense. I'm not an English major or anything, but I think it's safe to say the following about 'gaslighted' as opposed to 'gaslit':