“They’re out to take away your sanity”: A qualitative investigation of gaslighting in intimate partner violence

Purpose Gaslighting, a form of psychological abuse that targets a survivor’s sense of trust in their own knowing abilities, has received increasing attention in public discourse and scholarly research in recent years. However, in the small but growing body of academic literature, little has been written on survivors’ subjective experiences of gaslighting, specifically related to the impacts of this uniquely epistemic form of abuse. What does gaslighting do to a survivor’s sense of themselves as a knower? What are the lasting impacts of this kind of abuse? Through interviews with survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV), this study aims to illuminate this slippery and mind-bending form of abuse and its implications for survivor sense of self and wellbeing. Methods Fourteen IPV survivors were interviewed about their gaslighting experiences, and data were analyzed using qualitative descriptive methods. Results Two clusters of findings emerged. Survivors described (1) the domains of knowledge implicated in their gaslighting experiences, (2) the lasting impacts of gaslighting and survivors’ efforts to cope and heal. Together, the findings of this study begin to outline the profound loss of self-trust that gaslighting can produce across domains and how survivors make sense of and cope with their altered sense of themselves as knowers. Conclusions This study provides a much-needed deep investigation of the subjective experience of gaslighting in IPV, with specific attention to its uniquely epistemic dimensions. Findings are discussed in the context of Relational Cultural Theory (Jordan, 2001 ) and suggest the need for increased capacity for screening and detection of gaslighting in IPV.