Kate Manne
Sage School of Philosophy, Cornell

What is Gaslighting?

Gaslighting is often glossed as an interpersonal practice involving manipulating the victim into feeling "crazy." In this talk, I moot various desiderata for an adequate account of gaslighting, and argue for a broader account of the phenomenon — and, ultimately, a definition of gaslighting which allows that it can (a) be a cultural and political practice rather than an interpersonal one, (b) proceed by making victims feel negative moral emotions (such as guilty or ashamed) for questioning the gaslighter's version of the narrative, and (c) be defined functionally as an attempt to make the victim feel defective for so doing. I close by considering practices that encourage fruitful disagreement as an antidote to gaslighting.  

Kate Manne is an associate professor in philosophy at Cornell University. She is the author of Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny and Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women.