[ecrea] CFP deadline: Digital Narcissism

Reconstruction 13.3: Exploring Digital Narcissisms

Edited by Kane Faucher

For Freud, narcissism is the investment of libidinal energy redirected 
away from objects and toward the ego, whereas Lacan tells us it is a 
failure arising from the mirror stage precipitating a fruitless and 
perpetual search for the perfected image of the self. A "healthy" 
narcissism entails an optimal level of self-regard and esteem, whereas 
an "unhealthy" narcissism can lead to emotionally destructive 
consequences. In this way, the operative "borderline" between healthy 
ego formation and reactive defense of a fragile ego construct may, in 
fact, be more pronounced of an issue in the online environment where 
this struggle may find itself trans- or superimposed.

One of the major shifts in web 2.0 has been the facilitation of more 
participatory content via social networking sites (SNSs) and news site 
fora, etc. User-generated communication, be it synchronous or 
asynchronous in nature, has allowed for more opportunities in the area 
of self-expression in the digital Umwelt. A raft of studies and popular 
books in the last few years have indicated a tentative connection 
between SNSs and an enabling function for narcissistic self-display, 
aggressive behaviour, and the desire to maximize social capital, 
particularly as endemic to the social software architecture that allows 
for promotionalism and self-boosterism online. In some cases, there is 
an argument to the effect that such online behaviours follow trends 
reminiscent of the clinical definition of narcissistic personality 
disorder such as possessing poor object relations, the social dependency 
versus extreme autonomic reliance paradox, aggressive and cathartic 
exchanges in the online venue, the fostering of shallow connections and 
tributary relations; and other ambient factors such as the marketization 
of the online ego-identity construct, the "arithmomania" of collection 
fetishism present in the quantifying of connections as social capital, 
and other issues that may arise in the tension between the 
Internet-mediated self and the environment in which it operates. On the 
more optimistic end of the debate, SNSs as a "liberation technology" are 
a source of facilitating niche-building, information flow, personal 
expression, and healthy ego development rather than pathological 
auto-scopophilia.

We invite scholarly essays to explore the dynamism that may exist in the 
rise of social media with respect to changes in narcissistic behaviours 
and ego formation. How has the digital milieu shaped, or been shaped by, 
narcissisms? How does the online ego problematize the classic 
definitions of narcissism, in addition to making any diagnostic 
pronouncements on the basis of digital communication? Scholars are 
encouraged to draw from the literature on narcissism(s), including more 
classic formulations (Freudian and Lacanian), object relations (Kernberg 
et al) and self psychology (Kohut et al) schools of thought.

Suggested topics may include, but are not limited to,

Cyberpsychology and online ego-construction

Digital Ego-play and self-esteem

Object relations

The web as externalized id or mass subconscious manifestation

Cyberpragmatic analysis of interpersonal communication

Psychoanalysis of digital behaviour

Civilization and its (digital) discontents

Approval-seeking mechanisms

The sociological and psychological understanding of liking, ranking, and 
tagging

Please submit complete essays between now and Dec 31 to Kane Faucher 
((kfauche /at/ uwo.ca)). Inquiries of all kinds are also welcome.


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