Drives victims into crisis

“Gaslighting”: How you are being maliciously manipulated

"Gaslighting" is a technique used to make the victim emotionally dependent and can plunge them deep into an identity crisis.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/stock.adobe.com)

"You're imagining things! You always take everything personally! I never said that!": Have you heard it before? Constant statements like this can indicate "gaslighting" - a very dangerous manipulation tactic that you should definitely take seriously and, ideally, flee from immediately! How to recognize it and how to defend yourself? We have asked!

You come across it relatively often in everyday life: the "gaslighting" method. It is "the deliberate and targeted manipulation of a person in which their self-perception is shaken, for example through lies, distortions and insinuations", warns psychotherapist Barbara Haid: "The victim is made to feel insecure until they can no longer distinguish between truth and appearance."