Gangstalking is a novel persecutory belief system in which sufferers believe they are being stalked and harassed by a large number of people. In clinical practice, sufferers are frequently diagnosed with psychotic illnesses. Gangstalking sufferers typically reject this diagnosis and seek support from like-minded others in online forums. Despite growing public interest, little is known about the nature of this condition nor the information circulated among sufferers online.
In this presentation Dr Hunt will discuss the prevailing characteristics of online gangstalking discourse that mark out both the central tenets of sufferers’ belief system and its limits. Examining the corpus reveals a discursive contest between two opposing worldviews in which gangstalking is either a widespread, coordinated system of persecution or a form of psychiatric disorder...