Here, RD&T contributing author, Sharon Pope, brings to light a particularly destructive behavior: gaslighting.  She points out that “this is not a thing to mess around with” as she sounds the alarm bells on gaslighting.

Psychology Today tells us that “gaslighting is a form of persistent manipulation and brainwashing that causes the victim to doubt her or himself, and to ultimately lose their own sense of perception, identity, and self-worth…. The term is derived from a 1944 film Gaslight, in which a husband tries to convince his wife  that she’s insane by causing her to question herself and her reality.”