3 Narcissistic Phrases You Could Be Using Too
Common phrases that signal the minimization tactic.
Minimizing is precisely what it sounds like; it’s reducing the size of something; in psychology, that something is our thoughts, emotions, or behaviours. Minimizing is a gaslighting and a DARVO manipulative technique.
Gaslighting is purposefully undermining another person’s thoughts, memories, and actions. DARVO stands for Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender; it refers to how perpetrators of violence usually keep victims quiet and how they respond to confrontations about abuse. ‘Reverse victim and offender’ describes how abusers end up playing the victim.
Gaslighting causes a person to lose trust in their sense of reality and question their sanity. Frequent minimization can cause confusion, a lack of self-trust, cognitive dissonance, and a host of other traumatic responses. Abuse victims, particularly adult survivors of childhood trauma, often minimize the abuse they went through too.
“Once we have done something that is not in line with our thoughts, opinions, or values, we can an uncomfortable feeling. This is known as cognitive dissonance”- Unknown.
