Responding To Netizen's Comment

Netizen: I have read your latest post about lying and gaslighting.  Is there any difference between the two?

Response: Why do people lie? Telling a lie is a defense mechanism.  The person's motivation for this is to protect themselves and avoid trouble.  People utilized this unconscious mechanism to avoid punishments or humiliation and maintain their privacy. Sometimes they have to lie to protect themselves from being judged. The act is not something admirable and it is easy to understand why people are using it because it is readily available.

Gaslighting on the other is venomous and hostile, bordering on malicious. The gaslighter deliberately attempt to rewrite your REALITY (anything you personally experienced) and inject a different memory into you. It goes further than lying as its motivation is not only to deceive but contradict and oppose what the person has seen or heard.

With gaslighting, there is an intent to mask the TRUTH, and things you saw are now being challenged and impugned. If the person cited you and question your sanity, and your memory and accused you of being forgetful and a basket case all your life and that your eyes and ears should not be trusted ... and you don't have the updated version of knowing what is reality and what is a fallacy.

Simply put, all gaslighting has to lie as the basic component, but not all lying is gaslighting.