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The ‘Gaslight Phenomenon’ Reappears

A Modification of the Ganser Syndrome

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Charles G. Smith  and
Kenneth Sinanan
Charles G. Smith
Affiliation:
St. Patrick's Hospital, Dublin, 8
Kenneth Sinanan
Affiliation:
St. Patrick's Hospital, Dublin, 8
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Extract

In 1969 Barton and Whitehead reported two cases in which there were definite plots to remove an unwanted and restricting relative by securing admission to a mental hospital, and one case of an old lady admitted to a mental hospital following induced faecal incontinence. The old lady was considered a nursing home nuisance and she was given purgatives regularly. Inevitably she had some ‘accidents' and these were used as an excuse for removing her to hospital. They labelled such attempts ‘The Gaslight Phenomenon’, inspired by Patrick Hamilton's play Gaslight which was first produced in London in 1939 and later formed the basis for a film.∗ Their survey of the literature uncovered few recent reports of such manipulations.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 120 , Issue 559 , June 1972 , pp. 685 - 686
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1972 

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References

Barton, R., and Whitehead, T. A. (1969). ‘The gaslight phenomenon.’ Lancet, i, 1258–60.Google Scholar
Hamilton, Patrick (1939). Gaslight. London.Google Scholar
Leigh, D. (1961). The Historical Development of British Psychiatry. Oxford.Google Scholar
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