Member-only story
Top 5 Gaslighting Phrases That Really Work
Stop Me If You Heard This One…
There’s more than one good method to gaslighting. If you want to be really good at it, you have to mix things up, change your approach from time to time.
I have heard all sorts of great one-liners, mostly from my ex, but occasionally from other toxic people over the years, all pointing to how a simple turn of phrase can be used, effectively at times, to make one feel unhinged, insecure, and downright crazy.
I thought, what with the holidays on the horizon and the opportunities to spend time with ill-intentioned family all over the world, I should share the top five (though this list is subject to revision, and addition) with some of you.
“That never happened.”
This is probably not just the best line, but the most common. You simply don’t remember things the right way Your memory is flawed. You don’t recall things the way you should, and you are therefore an imperfect, untrustworthy human being.
Because you cannot remember this incident, you cannot be relied upon to recall others, either. Of course you can’t. But as long as we are dwelling on this particular incident, it can and should and must be forgiven, dismissed, tossed aside. Because it just wasn’t so. And you know it. Right? Of course you do.
