Humans are fundamentally social beings. Having adequate attunement of our perceptions to the perceptions of those around us is an essential cornerstone to our sense of existential stability .
The subversion of these norms that orient us to the world, each other and ourselves is what makes the manipulation tactics demonstrated in “Gaslight” so viscerally disturbing.
The story follows the slow unfolding of a husband’s psychological exploitation of a wife’s increasingly vulnerable state. At the beginning of the film, we come to know that Ingrid Bergman’s character was orphaned early in life, and survived the traumatic murder of her primary caregiver at an early age. Already primed for relational vulnerability from these tragic circumstances, she is whisked away by a man who seeks her hand in marriage merely 2 weeks after first meeting each other. Charles Boyer’s character sets the scene for his nefarious plot with textbook progressions of psychological manipulation; isolating the victim from any other points of contact, planting the seeds for her to doubt her own perception in seemingly insignificant ways and increasing the victim’s sense that she would not be able to function without him – interspersed with strategic shows of immense affection, fawning and gift-giving to tighten the fabricated “bond”.
From an archetypal lens, characters and dynamics of a story can be understood as symbolic depictions of the various faculties of a single mind. Primary masculine characters are often representations of the discursive thinking-mind and primary female characters frequently symbolize our connection to our soul. The discursive-mind -which can simply be understood as our inner monologue- has the capacity to supplement our experience of the world, but unfortunately, for many of us we are most familiar with its manifestation as our “inner critic”. Boyer’s character is that discursive mind that is hyper-critical and encourages us to give away our agency to outer figures who “know better” by constantly denegrating the inner authority of the soul. Through this archetypal lens, we can recognize all of the previously listed manipulative behaviors of Boyer’s character as the psychological effects of having an extreme “inner critic”; feeling isolated from others, doubting our own perception, and the increased sense that the “inner critic’s” harsh ways actually keep us safe.
As “light” is often understood to be a symbol for consciousness and lucidity, the dimming of the gas-lights serve as a rich symbol for the progressively confused and powerless state Bergman’s character descends into as a result of Boyer’s manipulation, representing the soul’s dimming in a dynamic where the inner-critic dominates.
The alternative to this dynamic is a discursive mind which supports & empowers rather than constantly criticizes & invalidates the soul. This role is fulfilled by Joseph Cotton’s character who, in a very tender scene, becomes the first point of contact with reality that mirrors Bergman’s perceptions back to herself, thus empowering Bergman’s inner authority by rationalizing her perceptions in accordance with reality.
While archetypally we can understand this as a restorative turning point in a psychological process, what Cotton does here can mirror the work of a skilled therapist, or any other relationship where authentic interpersonal contact has a reparative effect on our sense of inner agency.
As much as we may desire a feminist alternative ending where Bergman does not immediately run into the arms of another man, when interpreted archetypally, we can understand that – especially after the dissolution of her previous worldview (as symbolized by Boyer)- a novel worldview that supports her rehabilitation (represented by Cotton) is a necessary structure for her to recuperate within in order to establish a generative novel orientation to herself and the world.
It is a paradox of being human that psychological maturity comes from both differentiating from the dependence on others to “rescue” us and allowing authentic human connection to aid in repairing what may have been previously ruptured in relationship.