Member-only story
The Painful Truth: When Honesty Fails in Relationships — Dealing with Pathological Liars and Gaslighters
Are you tired of the façade of honesty and openness in relationships? It would be a wonderful world if every relationship were built on honesty, vulnerability, and truthfulness. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. In toxic relationships, partners often participate in dishonesty, withholding of the truth, and even gaslighting, making it hard to build a healthy foundation for the relationship.
While working through these issues with time and professional support can often help rebuild the foundation, what happens when one partner is a pathological liar, gaslighter, or manipulator? The truth is, the impact can be devastating. These manipulative behaviours can tear apart even the strongest relationships and leave emotional scars that can last for years.
Gaslighting and pathological lying are closely related in that they are both manipulative behaviours employed to deceive, control, or manipulate others. While they have some overlapping characteristics, they are distinct in their goals and manifestations.
Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation in which the gaslighter tries to make their victim doubt their perceptions, memory, or even sanity by denying, contradicting, or dismissing the reality of the…
