medical gaslighting
Last updatedWhat to know
The term “gaslighting” derives from a 1938 play, called Gas Light, in which a man subtly manipulates his wife over time into believing that she is going insane in order to distract her from his criminal activities. Entering popular usage over the past decade, it has come to describe a situation where a person or group furthers a damaging agenda via convincing someone to mistrust their own perception of reality. This can operate on an individual level (for instance, an abuser convincing their victim that they cannot trust their own memories of an attack) or on a wider scale (for instance, claims about the crowd size at the 2017 presidential inauguration).
“Medical gaslighting” applies this concept to interactions between doctors and patients, describing situations in which a practitioner minimizes or dismisses a patient’s experience of their own symptoms or disorder. While the more general definition of “gaslighting” often involves deliberate manipulation and abuse, “medical gaslighting” is frequently viewed as a symptom of implicit bias, medical racism, or a combination of the two, a moment when a physician’s entrenched, unexamined prejudices undermine their ability to appropriately diagnose and provide care.
Research has shown that women and people of color are far more likely to be misdiagnosed or have their symptoms dismissed, sometimes with fatal effects. In one study, women presenting with coronary heart disease symptoms were twice as likely as men to be told their symptoms were probably mental. Other studies show that Black women in the US are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women due to factors such as their symptoms being dismissed, or lack of access to quality care.
The rise of long Covid has ignited new conversations about medical gaslighting, as many patients — especially women, people of color, and lower-income people — have reported that medical professionals have ignored, belittled, or misdiagnosed their symptoms.
Careful coverage may take into account an “official” diagnosis but will also consider the details of someone’s lived experience and systemic factors and entrenched biases that may affect diagnosis and quality of treatment.
Additional resources
- “Women Are Calling Out ‘Medical Gaslighting’” (New York Times)
- “From heart disease to IUDs: How doctors dismiss women’s pain” (Washington Post)
- “What Serena Williams’s scary childbirth story says about medical treatment of black women” (Vox)
Summary
“Medical gaslighting” describes situations in which a practitioner minimizes or dismisses a patient’s experience of their own symptoms or disorder. Medical gaslighting is frequently viewed as a symptom of implicit bias, a moment when a physician’s entrenched, unexamined prejudices undermine their ability to appropriately diagnose and provide care. Research has shown that women and people of color are far more likely to be misdiagnosed or have their symptoms dismissed, sometimes with fatal effects. Careful coverage may take into account an “official” diagnosis but will also consider the details of someone’s lived experience and systemic factors and entrenched biases that may affect diagnosis and quality of treatment.