Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada.
J Med Internet Res. 2021 Mar 5;23(3):e25722. doi: 10.2196/25722.
Gangstalking is a novel persecutory belief system whereby those affected believe they are being followed, stalked, and harassed by a large number of people, often numbering in the thousands. The harassment is experienced as an accretion of innumerable individually benign acts such as people clearing their throat, muttering under their breath, or giving dirty looks as they pass on the street. Individuals affected by this belief system congregate in online fora to seek support, share experiences, and interact with other like-minded individuals. Such people identify themselves as targeted individuals.
The objective of the study was to characterize the linguistic and rhetorical practices used by contributors to the gangstalking forum to construct, develop, and contest the gangstalking belief system.
This mixed methods study employed corpus linguistics, which involves using computational techniques to examine recurring linguistic patterns in large, digitized bodies of authentic language data. Discourse analysis is an approach to text analysis which focuses on the ways in which linguistic choices made by text creators contribute to particular functions and representations. We assembled a 225,000-word corpus of postings on a gangstalking support forum. We analyzed these data using keyword analysis, collocation analysis, and manual examination of concordances to identify discursive and rhetorical practices among self-identified targeted individuals.
The gangstalking forum served as a site of discursive contest between 2 opposing worldviews. One is that gangstalking is a widespread, insidious, and centrally coordinated system of persecution employing community members, figures of authority, and state actors. This was the dominant discourse in the study corpus. The opposing view is a medicalized discourse supporting gangstalking as a form of mental disorder. Contributors used linguistic practices such as presupposition, nominalization, and the use of specialized jargon to construct gangstalking as real and external to the individual affected. Although contributors generally rejected the notion that they were affected by mental disorder, in some instances, they did label others in the forum as impacted/affected by mental illness if their accounts if their accounts were deemed to be too extreme or bizarre. Those affected demonstrated a concern with accumulating evidence to prove their position to incredulous others.
The study found that contributors to the study corpus accomplished a number of tasks. They used linguistic practices to co-construct an internally coherent and systematized persecutory belief system. They advanced a position that gangstalking is real and contested the medicalizing discourse that gangstalking is a form of mental disorder. They supported one another by sharing similar experiences and providing encouragement and advice. Finally, they commiserated over the challenges of proving the existence of gangstalking.
“团伙跟踪”是一种新颖的被害妄想症体系，受其影响的人坚信自己正被大量人跟踪、骚扰，这些人往往数以千计。骚扰被认为是无数单独的良性行为的累积，例如人们在街头经过时清嗓子、小声嘟囔或怒目而视。受这种信仰体系影响的人聚集在网络论坛上寻求支持、分享经验，并与其他志同道合的人互动。这些人自称为被“定向跟踪”的目标个体。
本研究旨在描述团伙跟踪论坛参与者构建、发展和争论团伙跟踪信念体系时所使用的语言和修辞实践。
本混合方法研究采用了语料库语言学，该方法涉及使用计算技术来检查大型数字化真实语言数据中重复出现的语言模式。语篇分析是一种文本分析方法，侧重于文本创作者所做的语言选择如何有助于特定的功能和表达。我们组建了一个包含 225000 字的团伙跟踪支持论坛帖子语料库。我们使用关键词分析、搭配分析和手动检查搭配来识别自我认同的目标个体之间的话语和修辞实践。
团伙跟踪论坛是两种对立世界观之间的话语争论场所。一种观点认为，团伙跟踪是一种广泛存在的、阴险的、由社区成员、权威人物和国家行为者集中协调的迫害系统。这是研究语料库中的主要观点。另一种观点是将团伙跟踪视为一种精神障碍形式的医学化论述。参与者使用了预设、名词化和使用专业术语等语言实践，将团伙跟踪描述为真实的、外部的影响个体。尽管参与者普遍拒绝他们受到精神障碍影响的观点，但在某些情况下，如果他们的说法被认为过于极端或离奇，他们确实会将论坛上的其他人标记为受到精神疾病的影响。受影响的人表现出积累证据以向怀疑论者证明自己立场的意愿。
研究发现，研究语料库的参与者完成了多项任务。他们使用语言实践共同构建了一个内部一致且系统化的迫害信念体系。他们提出了团伙跟踪是真实存在的观点，并反驳了团伙跟踪是一种精神障碍形式的医学化论述。他们通过分享相似的经历、提供鼓励和建议来互相支持。最后，他们对证明团伙跟踪存在的挑战表示同情。
