The Maid’s Diary relies heavily on the modern social and psychological concept of gaslighting. The word “gaslighting” came into common usage recently to describe a technique of psychological manipulation that relies on false narratives and perspectives. Psychologists use the term when describing a tactic favored by narcissists and sociopaths to invalidate the perception of their victims.

The word has its origin in a 20th-century thriller, the 1944 classic movie Gaslight starring Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer. This period melodrama hinges on a husband’s attempts to make his wife doubt herself by insisting that she is seeing things. The husband wishes to have his wife declared insane so that he can control her fortune and search the house for a hidden cache of jewels. One of the many tactics he uses is to secretly dim the gas lamps in her room while simultaneously insisting that her eyes are playing tricks on her.

The Maid’s Diary draws on the concept of gaslighting to describe Jon and Daisy Rittenberg’s exploitation of Katarina Popovich after she is drugged and raped. Because Katarina can’t remember what happened that night, the guilty parties conspire to make her doubt her own sanity.