Simplifying information leaves out interesting complexity
Dr. Loreen Huffman

Associate Professor of Psychology

In my Psychology of Film course, we recently watched the movie Gaslight. In this film, a man tries to make his wife think she is going insane. He does this with a number of strategies. He isolates her from others, and tells her that she s forgetful and always misplacing things. Soon, objects begin to disappear and reappear, and he accuses her of hiding things. Although she denies his accusations at first, she soon becomes confused and unable to trust her own judgment. She doesn t know what is real and what is not real. From this movie, the term,  gaslighting,  came to refer to the sometimes deliberate, sometimes unconscious, strategies which a powerful person may use to distort the perceptions of others.

Showing this film lead to my thinking about how we know what we know. Some of what we know is from direct experience. I can see the blue sky outside my window and hear people talking. I know my computer is working because I can see my words appear on the screen. I know I talked about infant imitation of emotional expressions in my Child Development course   but, hmmm...as I look over the midterm, I see no one got the question correct. How could this be? I have a clear memory of talking about it in class. I know I covered that material, or did I? Is it possible that something I know could be false?

Some of what we know comes from indirect experience, where another person gives us information. When I was in college, I learned that Freud s theory of psychology emphasized sexuality. According to Freud, every human behavior developed from the expression of the sex drive, my professors would explain disparagingly. When I eventually got around to reading Freud s original work in graduate school, I was surprised. He struggled with the role of sexuality in behavior, and was never quite happy with how his theory dealt with it. My professors had simplified Freud for my understanding, but in doing so left out some of the interesting complexity.

Much of the information in our lives today comes from the media. Millions of people are influenced by what they see and hear on newscasts. Sometimes I wonder how or why some items are presented as information on the news. For example, an announcer on CNN the other day reported that 85 percent of Americans are in favor of going to war with Iraq. There was no additional information regarding who was asked about this or how the question was worded. These are important questions, however, when trying to understand a complex issue. Like the wife in the movie Gaslight, it s important to think about how we know what we know. Or, as Robin Williams once said,  Reality...What a concept.