Posted by pegasus on July 12, 2005, at 21:09:17
In reply to Chapter 6: Gaslighting, posted by Dinah on June 27, 2005, at 21:47:08
Hey, I have about 15 baby-less minutes to post everything I've wanted to post over the past 2 weeks!
The whole gaslighting issue made me think about something my boss said the other day. We were talking about people being terminated from their jobs (notice the unfortunate cooincidence in language between therapy and employment). He said that when people were terminated, there was always ample warning to them about whatever the problem was. Then he said that even so, often they're under the delusion that they weren't warned, and weren't doing anything wrong. So, then we all started wondering whether *we* were delusional about being good employees. Or was he just gaslighting the terminated people, to hide the fact that they were fired because he just didn't like them? Or maybe *he's* delusional about whether they were amply warned.
Anyway, my point is that this type of thing can happen in other places in life, too. But I think it's more nasty in therapy than in most others. Because it's about our general perception of reality, which is a pretty big thing to be delusional about.
Um, so, I guess that's all I have to say about gaslighting. I look forward to continuing this thread, even when I have trouble posting.
Peg
poster:pegasus
thread:491935
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050706/msgs/526914.html