I had never heard of this before, but it certainly does seem relevant for our times:
DARVO is an acronym for “deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender”, which summarizes a common strategy of abusers. The abuser denies the abuse ever took place, then attacks the victim for attempting to hold the abuser accountable, and then claims that they, the abuser, are actually the victim in the situation, thus reversing the reality of the victim and offender. This usually involves not just “playing the victim” but also victim blaming. The acronym and the analysis it is based on are the work of the psychologist Jennifer Freyd, whose webpage links to an article explaining that the first stage of DARVO, denial, involves gaslighting.
Jennifer Freyd writes:
…I have observed that actual abusers threaten, bully and make a nightmare for anyone who holds them accountable or asks them to change their abusive behavior. This attack, intended to chill and terrify, typically includes threats of law suits, overt and covert attacks on the whistle-blower’s credibility, and so on. The attack will often take the form of focusing on ridiculing the person who attempts to hold the offender accountable. […] [T]he offender rapidly creates the impression that the abuser is the wronged one, while the victim or concerned observer is the offender. Figure and ground are completely reversed. […] The offender is on the offense and the person attempting to hold the offender accountable is put on the defense.
Democrats have to get past this somehow and I would suggest that the first step is holding abusers legally accountable for their actions.