A couple quarreled on the Internet and set a movie on fire.
The couple is Wang Lihong and Li Lianglei, and this movie is the Oscar classic film "Under the Gaslight", which was released in 1944.
The cause of the incident is that Li Lianglei posted Wang Lihong's psychiatrist diagnosis book on the Internet, and in the document appeared a somewhat strange-looking term "gas lighting", if directly translated is the meaning of gas lamp, but in the psychologist, the word group has a special meaning "gas lamp person" or "gas lamp effect".
The so-called "gas lamp effect" means that the manipulator has long instilled false information into the victim's consciousness, so that the victim has a strong doubt about himself, and finally achieves the effect of being controlled by the manipulator.
At first glance, similar to this term is the more popular "PUA", but there is still a difference between the two, the difference is that the "gas lamp effect" is not a simple manipulation, but also makes the victim mentally broken, more harmful.
Why is psychology so named this behavior such a strange "gas lamp effect"? Its roots lie in the movie "Under the Gaslight", so what exactly does this movie say that will make the movie title a psychological term?
1. Storyline
"Under the Gaslight" was originally a stage play "Angel Street", which was later made by the British in 1940 into the film "Under the Gaslight", and was remade again in Hollywood in 1944, starring the famous film star Ingrid Bergman and achieved great success. The film won two awards at the 1945 Academy Award for Best Actress and Best Art Direction, as well as nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress. Therefore, later on, "Under the Gaslight" basically refers to the 1944 American version of the film.
Paula's aunt Alice was a famous singer, Paula's mother died early, and she and her aunt lived with her aunt in a mansion in Thornton Square, London.
When Paula was 12 years old, her aunt Alice was strangled to death in front of the fireplace, and Paula jr. witnessed the crime, but the murderer escaped, and the case has not been solved and has been unsolved.
Paula inherited a large inheritance and went to Italy to study music. 10 years later, Paula met the young pianist Anton while studying music, the two quickly fell in love and married, because Anton wanted to live in London, Paula returned to the Sandton Square mansion that brought her great psychological shadow for her husband.
When the couple first returned to the mansion, Paula accidentally found a letter sent to him by a man named Bauer two days before his aunt was killed, and Anton saw the letter and snatched it in a fit of rage, then calmed down and pretended to be okay.
Anton finds two maids, Elizabeth, an old cook with a back of her ear, and a young, beautiful but well-behaved Nancy. Due to Anton's arrogance, Nancy's attitude towards Paula is very bad, which makes Paula very annoyed.
After marriage, Anton went out every night, and he said that he was inspired to compose music in his rented writing room. Paula, on the other hand, has lived in a mansion for a long time, but the mansion is not peaceful. Every night, the gaslights in the room are always bright and dim, and there will be frightening footsteps and strange sounds on the roof. Paula asks the maid, but it is thought to be her own whims.
Under Anton's ingenious design, Paula's mental state is getting worse and worse, she finds herself very forgetful, physical and psychological problems, sometimes she herself is reluctant to go out, and sometimes when she wants to go out, she is blocked by her husband for various reasons.
A young police officer, Cameron, stumbled upon Paula, who he felt looked alike to Alice, and that he himself had been a die-hard fan of Alice since childhood. Paula and Anton's abnormal state of life arouses Cameron's suspicions, so Cameron re-files the murder of Alice, and he discovers that the murderer's motive may be related to the precious gem that Alice obtained that year.
Paula has an enthusiastic neighbor, an old lady who is a fan of detective fiction, and Cameron tries to enter Paula's mansion through this old lady to find out, but is stopped by the maid Nancy. So Cameron called in a young patrol officer and asked him to approach Nancy to get information, and at the same time asked Nancy out.
Cameron and the patrol find that Anton goes to a mysterious corner every night after going out alone and disappears, and after investigation, Cameron discovers that the place where Anton detoured is probably the roof attic of his family's mansion, where there is a warehouse where all alice's belongings are sealed.
Alice's old friend invites Paula to a concert, but Paula is stopped by Anton in full costume, and she angrily says that she must go, and Anton can only accompany her. At the concert site, Anton repeated the same trick, making Paula think that her spirit was really wrong, and she cried on the spot and was witnessed by the ladies in the audience.
Anton reprimands Paula for humiliating people, and continues to put mental pressure on Paula to believe that her mother died of mental illness, and the so-called Bauer's letter she discovered earlier is also her fantasy. Paula is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and Anton secretly plans to send Paula to a mental hospital.
On this night, Nancy is asked out by the patrol, and Cameron breaks into Paula's mansion directly, where he gains Paula's trust with the precious gloves Alice gave him.
Cameron went straight to tell Paula that Anton was not normal and Paula couldn't believe it. Cameron then finds Ball's letter in Anton's desk, and he tells Paula that Ball was one of the suspects in Alice's murder, and that Ball was None other than Anton. Anton has a wife in his hometown of Prague, and he kills Alice and marries Paula in order to get Alice's gem.
Anton finally finds the jewel Alice hid in the costume in the attic, and when he returns home, he finds that the desk has been pried and questioned Paula, cameron returns in time and controls Anton with the help of the patrol, and the truth is revealed.
It turns out that Bauer used to be Alice's piano accompanist, and he coveted the valuable gems in Alice's hand, so he secretly entered Alice's mansion as an admirer, and he was found by Alice while looking for the gem, and Anton absconded after killing people. Ten years later, he finds Paula, who has grown up, and under the pseudonym Anton approaches Paula to cheat her trust and marry.
Paula's accidental discovery of Bauer's letter makes Anton very nervous, and he systematically destroys Paula's spirit to control her, while he sneaks into his own warehouse from outside the house every night through the neighbor's house to find Alice's gems in the relics.
Because the gas lamp in the warehouse and the gas lamp in Paula's bedroom use the same pipe, when Anton turns on the lights in the warehouse to find something, it will cause the lights in Paula's bedroom to dim. When he finished searching and turning off the gaslight, the light in Paula's bedroom would turn on again. The footsteps and noises of his rummaging through things became Paula's nightmare.
When Paula learns the truth, she angrily rebukes Anton for refusing to forgive him, and Anton is taken away by the police, and Cameron stays behind to comfort Paula. The ending suggests that cameron and Paula, who is the same age, should be together.
Second, Anton's gas lamp effect
Although "Under the Gaslight" is a suspense thriller, the most influential thing left behind is the "gaslight effect", which shows how impressive Anton's method of mind control of Paula is.
In the film, Anton uses at least four methods to mentally control Paula:
1. Blockade
Anton used various reasons to lock Paula in the house and prevent her from leaving, and for four or five months even the neighbors did not enter his door. When someone came to visit from the outside, the maid refused to meet the guest on the grounds that the lady was ill. Invitations from old friends were also rejected by Anton.
Anton uses physical blockades and information blockades to disconnect Paula from the outside world, and his connection to the outside world is only Anton, so that she can only rely more and more on Anton and obey him.
Some viewers wondered, why is Paula so obedient? This is a good explanation, at first Paula trusted her husband because of her feelings for Anton, and Anton was thinking for Paula. Later, Paula also had some "Stockholm syndrome".
2. Implantation
In Inception has a passage to implant thoughts, and Anton does the same in Under the Gaslight, where his method is to create small things to implant The idea that Paula is mentally ill and is particularly forgetful.
Anton gives Paula a "family heirloom jewelry" and deliberately puts it in Paula's handbag in front of Paula. But then he secretly takes the jewelry away, and when Paula finds out that the jewelry is missing, Anton comforts her and instills in her the message that "you always lose everything".
Anton secretly hid a painting from his home in a place where Paula could easily see, the painting was discovered by Paula twice, and the third time When Anton slandered paula for taking the painting, he deliberately made the two maids swear, indirectly proving that Paula had taken the painting. When Paula found the painting again, Anton "appeared in time": you see, it was you who hid it, you are always so forgetful.
At the concert, Anton secretly put the watch into Paula's handbag, and then under the pretext that his watch could not be found, Paula found the watch in his handbag, and Anton accused her: You took it, you forgot it.
In short, Anton repeatedly creates small things to implant Paula with the idea of "I am forgetful", and the terrible thing is that Anton not only chooses small things, but also "intimately forgives" Paula every time, so that Paula cannot escape and cannot doubt Anton.
3. Destroy
Anton deliberately chooses a frivolous maid, Nancy, to take care of Paula, and at the same time he deliberately says something frivolous to Nancy in front of Paula, which makes Paula feel ashamed and at the same time has a fear of Nancy. The more Paula was afraid of Nancy, the more Anton deliberately asked Paula to give Nancy orders.
This is an act in which Anton is deliberately destroying Paula's self-confidence, so that she only dares to hide at home and only dare to talk to Anton.
4. Pull
When plucking the radish, you can't pull it hard, and it is best to have a back-and-forth pulling action to pull it out smoothly. The same is true of the art of taming people in the enterprise, hitting a sweet date, just giving a sweet date, and then hitting, pulling back and forth, subordinates are easy to become obedient.
Anton treats Paula the same way, when Paula is extremely mentally ill he will be considerate of Paula, when Paula is in a good mood he will be the first blow, when Paula is in a slump he will take Paula out to relax, when Paula is full of hope he will pour a basin of cold water. When Paula became rebellious, Anton immediately struck him with rage, after which he would go over to comfort Paula. This kind of mental abuse makes Paula become heavily dependent on Anton and completely lose herself.
In the end, under Anton's close control, Paula becomes a "patient" who only wanders around the house, and according to Anton's plan, the next step is to send Paula to a mental hospital, and then embezzle all of Paula's property, including gems, and return to his hometown of Prague to continue living with his wife.
The terrible thing about "Under the Gas Lamp" is that Anton's psychological manipulation of Paula feels suffocating and has a feeling of being invincible, so the field of psychology has named this psychological manipulation method "Gaslight Effect".
Third, Anton's accomplice
In the movie "Under the Gaslight", Anton is not only a person, he also has accomplices, but his accomplices are divided into three situations.
1, unsuspecting Elizabeth
The cook Elizabeth, whom Anton chose, had bad ears, which must have been deliberately done by him, so that Elizabeth could not hear the sound that Anton made when he was rummaging upstairs. When Paula said that she heard the strange sound, Elizabeth in the back of the ear inadvertently became Anton's "accomplice", and she showed that she did not hear the strange sound, which increased Paula's mental pressure.
Of course, Elizabeth is not really an "accomplice", she does not know, but just happens to be used by Anton on the back of her ear, and at the critical moment she grits her teeth and does not betray Paula.
2, informed Nancy
Nancy, the maid who takes care of Paula, knows something, she is very young and intelligent, and she has long guessed that the person who made the strange noise is Anton, but she did not tell Paula, but instead cooperated with Anton to torture Paula's nerves.
Nancy's choice is actually Anton's trick, he flirts with Nancy to give her some hope of ascending to the throne, but never crosses the thunder pool to let Nancy succeed, his and Nancy's ambiguous ambiguity makes Nancy willing to be an accomplice for him, and at the same time, out of emotional hostility, she continues to torture Paula's emotions in reality.
3. Indifferent other people
There are other people around Paula and Anton, but the only people who really pay attention to them, besides the neighbor old lady who likes to read detective novels, are Alice's hardcore fan police officer Cameron. Others would not care even if they perceived that the family was not in an abnormal state, and even if Paula suddenly cried at the concert, the other guests would only think that Paula was out of order.
Of course, it seems that these outsiders are very indifferent, but in fact, if this kind of thing is placed around the vast majority of people, you will most likely choose this way, who will distract from an irrelevant outsider.
In fact, the "gas lamp effect" exists around us more or less deeply or shallowly, but we either ignore it, or despise it, or get used to it.
This is one of the reasons why Anton gave Paula the "gas lamp effect", and it is also one of the reasons why the "gas lamp effect" is frightening, and it is also one of the reasons why the movie "Under the Gaslight" has become an important case of psychology.
Anyway, thanks to Wang Lihong and Li Lianglei, the gossip between them at least has a positive effect, that is, let many people know the movie "Under the Gas Lamp", but also understand the psychological term "gas lamp effect", this indirect science popularization effect is still very good, as to whether they also have a "gas lamp effect" in their lives, will you care?