The Brian Mulroney Institute of Government and Frank McKenna Centre for Leadership Present
The Gaslit Brain
Dr. Jennifer Fraser
Tuesday, November 4, 2025
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Mulroney Hall 2030
The Mulroney Institute and McKenna Centre welcome Canadian author and educator Dr. Jennifer Fraser who will share insights into her forthcoming book The Gaslit Brain: Protect Your Brain From the Lies of Bullying, Gaslighting, and Institutional Complicity. In a world of increasingly shaped by disinformation, political division, and toxic leadership, The Gaslit Brain is the first book linking gaslighting directly to measurable neurological damage – and to offer science-backed strategies to counter it. Drawing on over 10 years of studying the neuroscience of abuse cultures, Dr. Fraser presents the evidence that gaslighting and psychological manipulation don't just harm emotionally – they physically alter the brain, eroding trust, critical thinking, and resilience.
All are welcome.
Dr. Jennifer Fraser
Jennifer Fraser, PhD, is an international expert on abuse cultures, those who resist them, and the way they impact brain function. She has been researching and teaching about abuse and resistance for almost two decades. Dr. Fraser taught critical reading and textual analysis in the Literary Studies program at University of Toronto. In 2003, she moved with her husband’s work and their children to Victoria, BC, where she became an award-winning teacher in an international boarding school. When she heard directly from students they were being abused by four teachers, she reported not only to school administrators, but also to government regulators. She resigned in protest from this school as a whistleblower and now sits on the board of the Whistleblowing Canada Research Society.
Dr. Fraser has advocated with two parliamentary committees in Canada for better protection for children from abuse by educators and she has presented before the Senate in Massachusetts who are creating legislation to protect employees from psychological abuse in the workplace. She was asked to present at the University of Oxford in the largest annual European conference on Health and Trauma in 2024 on her research into how abuse damages brain architecture and function.
Her first book on abuse culture and its correlation with war Be A Good Soldier was published in 2011 by University of Toronto Press. Further books followed: Teaching Bullies in 2015, The Bullied Brain in 2022, and the forthcoming Gaslit Brain in the fall of 2025. Dr. Fraser writes a regular series “The Bullied Brain” for Psychology Today and works as an international presenter and consultant on abuse cultures and ways to transform them.
Photo credit: Shaun Day