How Psychopaths Gaslight Their Victims

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One of the most insidious and diabolical tools of the psychopath is gaslighting, a term that originated from the critically acclaimed 1938 play Gas Light.¹ The term was popularized by movies in Britain (1940) and Hollywood (1944). The play, subsequently titled Angel Street in the United States, was acclaimed by critics and a popular success, with 1,295 consecutive Broadway performances.²

A tool for psychopathic control

The word gaslight became synonymous with a special type of manipulation — creating a sense of innate and intrinsic self-doubt. The person who gaslights is consistent and purposeful in the act of intentionally making another person feel guilty, apologetic, and fraught with anxiety in order to advance some goal or scheme.

A partner in love can be the ideal target for a male or female psychopath who employs gaslighting as a tool for manipulation. This is largely because, as psychopathy expert J. Reid Meloy notes, “The paradigm of power and control, rather than attachment and bonding is center stage to the psychopath.”³

The epitome of a gaslighting psychopath

In the notes to the play, Jack Manningham, the “gaslighter,” is described as, “tall, good-looking, about forty-five, heavily moustached and bearded and perhaps a little too well dressed. His manner is suave and authoritative, with a touch of mystery and bitterness.”⁴ His aim is to intentionally drive his wife, Bella Manningham, into believing she is insane, so he can have her committed and claim her money and property. In the words of psychopathy researcher Paul Babiak, the psychopath manipulates the victim “to make [her] feel guilty and sad about things [she] had never done at all.” In other words: gaslighting.

Jack is the epitome of a psychopath. He carries out the intentional torture of his wife, as she becomes frailer and sicker by the day. A victim could have fond memories of their psychopathic mate as Bella claims she had: “The other night when you stayed in and played cards with me, it was like old days, and I went to bed feeling a normal, happy, healthy, human being. And then, the day after, when you read your book to me, Jack, and we sat by the fire, I felt all my love for you coming back… .”⁵ As psychopathy researcher Paul Babiak has stated: “One of the most effective skills psychopaths use to get the trust of people is their ability to charm them.”⁶

Once used, the game piece is discarded

To a psychopath, people are only as good as what they can get out of them. Once this is done, you are rendered “nothing” to them. Mr. Rough, the detective who was investigating Jack, understands this when he explained to Bella that Jack was trying to drive her insane “because he doesn’t need you any longer.” Their house has been purchased with her money, thereby enabling him to search for the jewels he hadn’t found years earlier when he had murdered the upstairs occupant. Bella could now be disposed of, and, in the process, he could claim her house, money, and other possessions.⁷

The gaslighting techniques Jack uses are mechanisms and machinations of a psychopath. In her book The Sociopath Next Door, Martha Stout writes: “This is exactly what happens to the human mind when emotional attachment is missing. Life is reduced to a contest, and other human beings seem to be nothing more than game pieces, to be moved about, used as shields, or ejected.”⁸ This is precisely what Jack was doing.

In 2019, the 1944 film Gas Light was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."⁹ While millions have viewed the British and Hollywood film versions, the play has been performed throughout the world in theaters as far-flung as Perth, Australia, the Philippines, and Brazil.¹⁰ Its theme resonates with audiences because the real-life phenomenon encountered in every country, where psychopaths continue to inflict misery using the same techniques. Gas Light will always be illuminating to those who want to understand something of the potentially devastating manipulations of a psychopath.

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