Coercive Control Field Check / GAS
Category 07
Gaslighting and Reality Manipulation
The sustained effort to make the target distrust their own perceptions, memory, and judgment so that the abuser's version of events becomes the dominant reality. The abuser achieves this by denying or rewriting shared history, mobilizing stereotypes and structural vulnerabilities, and reversing blame when confronted.
Adair 2025; Tager-Shafrir et al. 2024; Sweet 2019, 2021; Stark 2007.
GAS-1
Reality Distortion, Denial and Rewriting of Events
Denying that events occurred and insisting on counterfactual versions of shared history.
GAS-2
Mobilizing Stereotypes and Structural Vulnerability
Leveraging the target's gender, immigration status, psychiatric or substance-use history, sexuality, race, criminal record, or other structural vulnerabilities to undermine credibility with the target and with third parties.
GAS-3
Blame Reversal (DARVO)
When confronted, the abuser Denies the behavior, Attacks the target's credibility or character, and Reverses Target and Offender blame so that the abuser becomes the injured party and the target is labeled the aggressor.
Literature this family is drawn from
- Sweet, P. L. (2019). The sociology of gaslighting. American Sociological Review, 84(5), 851-875.
- Forensic linguistic evidence of psychological abuse and discursive manipulation in cyberstalking cases. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict (2026).
Carlton, C. (2026). Coercive Control Field Check: GAS Gaslighting and Reality Manipulation. Coercive Control Observatory. Last reviewed August 31, 2026.