GASLIGHTING: A PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVE ON PSYCHOLOGICAL VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Abstract

This article aimed to analyze gaslighting as a form of psychological violence against women from a psychoanalytic perspective, relating it to the Brazilian legal framework and to its impacts on victims' mental health. This is a narrative literature review with a qualitative and descriptive approach, which gathered national and international scientific articles, classic psychoanalytic works and Brazilian Laws No. 11,340/2006 and No. 14,188/2021, examined through thematic content analysis. Four axes emerged: the legal recognition of psychological violence; the aggressor's psychic dynamics, marked by projection, denial and a position of domination over the other; the effects on the victim, such as self-doubt, guilt, isolation and the repetition of abusive bonds; and the impacts on mental health, together with ways of coping. It is concluded that gaslighting cannot be reduced to conscious manipulation, since it mobilizes unconscious processes on both sides of the relationship and is sustained by gender inequalities. Psychoanalysis contributes to understanding the phenomenon and to a clinical listening that favors the reconstruction of women's autonomy, provided it is integrated into the intersectoral network for the protection of women.