Combating Structural Gaslighting through Disability Narratives

Abstract: According to Nora Berenstain, structural gaslighting refers to “any conceptual work that functions to obscure the nonaccidental connections between structures of oppression and the patterns of harm that they produce and license” (Berenstain 2020, 734). Structural harms perpetrated against the disability community often wear a mask of care and benevolence while simultaneously scapegoating the disability community itself as the pathological or socially deviant source of those same harms. All the while, the disability community is conceptualized as a problematic population in need of expert management. Each presentation in this panel explores a separate instance of structural gaslighting, and each highlights the importance of privileging first person disability testimony in identifying and addressing structural harms to the disability community. Our first presenter examines how harms faced by disabled people lacking access to essential assistive technology are routinely denied via their reconceptualization as medical problems with gatekept medical solutions, rather than genuine, ethically valenced, unmet social needs that exist outside the concept of “medical necessity.” . Our second presenter explores how public health messaging emphasizing personal responsibility for dental health is both ableist in nature, and also conceals the structural barriers faced by the disability community in accessing quality and affordable dental care. Our third presenter describes a pattern of administrative violence perpetrated against disability benefits claimants, manifesting as stigma, surveillance, enforced poverty, and inappropriate medical gatekeeping. Concurrently, these social harms are masked by the appearance of supererogatory care and generosity toward those same claimants.

Keywords: disability testimony, structural gaslighting, health policy