What is gaslighting? It is more than just a lie or a manipulation tactic. Gaslighting is a slow erosion of a person’s ability to trust their own perception. It unfolds over time, often within intimate relationships, workplaces, or families, creating confusion, self-doubt, and emotional dependency.

This book shows how gaslighting works not only in the mind, but also in the body. Drawing on philosophy, psychoanalysis, sociology, film, and contemporary stress research, it explains how chronic relational pressure can disrupt a person’s sense of reality and undermine their agency from within.

The book traces the subtle dynamics through which doubt takes hold and offers language for experiences that are difficult to describe, also showing why recovery requires more than “just realizing what happened.” It calls for restoring one’s capacity to feel, to know, and to act from a place of embodied determination.