Rodrigo Almeida Sousa Original Scientific Paper FREUDIAN NARCISSISM IN CROSS-MEDIA STORYTELLING: The Curious Case of Nujeen Mustafa. Keywords: Abstract Post-truth; Aggressiveness; Prejudice; Idealisation; The importance of storytelling in the 21st Century’s media is Migrants; Refugees; Posverdad; indisputable. Facts alone do not satisfy our desire for identity. Agresividad; Prejuicio; Idealización; Migrantes; Only stories can provide us with a sense of identification and Refugiados. belonging. However, stories can also exacerbate our emotion- al and narcissistic response; and this is precisely what post- Author: truth storytelling is all about: fact-devaluation, appeal to the Dr. Rodrigo Almeida Sousa emotions, extreme partiality and aggressive rhetoric. Based is Academic Researcher at on Freud’s theory of narcissism, our research article proposes Transdisciplinary Research an objective and interdisciplinary model from which we can Centre ‘Culture, Space and Memory’ (CITCEM) of the recognise, depict and analyse narcissistic patterns in today’s University of Porto, Portugal. cross-media storytelling. In effect, this will help us to better understand the story of the refugee Nujeen Mustafa, which Correspondence: seems to illustrate so well our explicit and implicit dynamics [email protected] of self-love. Field: Resumen Communication science La importancia del ‘storytelling’ en los medios del siglo XXI es indiscutible. Los hechos por sí solos no satisfacen nuestro deseo de identidad. Solo las historias pueden proporcionarnos un sentido de identificación y pertenencia. Sin embargo, las historias también pueden exacerbar nuestra respuesta emo- cional y narcisista; y esto es precisamente lo que ocurre en el ‘storytelling’ de la posverdad: devaluación de los hechos, apel- DOI: ación a las emociones, parcialidad extrema y retórica agresiva. 10.5937/politeia0-24203 Basado en la teoría del narcisismo de Freud, nuestro artículo de investigación propone un modelo objetivo e interdisciplinar- Paper received on: io a partir del cual podemos reconocer, representar y analizar 11-26 , pp Mustafa. Case Nujeen of Curious The STORYTELLING: IN CROSS-MEDIA NARCISSISM Almeida Sousa R., FREUDIAN 25.11.2019. padrones narcisistas en el ‘storytelling’ de los medios actuales. En efecto, esto nos ayudará a comprender mejor la historia Paper accepted for de la refugiada Nujeen Mustafa, que parece ilustrar tan bien publishing on: nuestras dinámicas explícitas e implícitas de amor-propio. 25.12.2019. 11 © 2019 Објавио часопис Политеиа (politeia.fpn.unibl.org). Ово је чланак отвореног приступа и дистрибуира се у складу са “Creative Commons” лиценцом (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/rs) 1. INTRODUCTION tic traits which are much harder to perceive. Furthermore, by reinterpreting a peculiar Human perceptions are grounded on Freudian insight, we will finally see that emotions and identification processes rath- not only can ‘minor differences’ exacerbate er than facts and figures. Those who work in objectification and aggressiveness, but so too the culture and entertainment industries and can ‘minor similarities’. media are well aware of this reality. Indeed, it is one of the main reasons why storytelling 2. METHODOLOGY ПОЛИТЕИА · 2019 · Год. 9 · Бр. 18 · 2019 Год. ПОЛИТЕИА has taken over the early 21st century, conse- quently reinforcing subjectivity and emotion In order to address these questions, we over objectivity and facts. But how far can have adopted combined qualitative methods, this go? Given the post-truth environment according to three specific objectives: that we are living in, can we still distinguish 1.1. Based on critical hermeneutics, we between simple, credible news stories and first contextualise the relationship between biased, deceitful and manipulative ones? In storytelling, emotionalism, subjectivism and other words: How can we tell the difference their potential exacerbation, which leads to between subjectivism and narcissism in con- our research problem: What interdiscipli- temporary media storytelling? nary criteria/model can we use to effectively We begin by contextualising this prob- recognise, describe and analyse narcissistic lem by taking as a reference the European traits in cross-media narratives? We then migrant crisis and the curious case of Nujeen suggest the Freudian concept of narcissism Mustafa – a teenage Syrian refugee who as a reasonable hypothetical model due to its arrived in Europe in September 2015 and coherence and comprehensive nature. soon became a viral phenomenon. Taking 1.2. Subsequently, we extend our herme- into account Freud’s influence in modern neutical analysis with a comparative analysis. culture and the interdisciplinary nature of In this way, we aim to examine different types his psychoanalytic approach, we then suggest of cross-media content and see how they fit the Freudian concept of narcissism as a hypo- Freud’s model of narcissism, on different thetical model through which we can recog- levels and according to different specificities. nise, depict and analyse narcissistic patterns 1.3. Furthermore, throughout our anal- and dynamics in cross-media narratives. ysis we continually refer back to the case of Bearing in mind the need to test our Nujeen Mustafa, as a representative illustra- hypothesis, we then proceed to examine how tion of points 2.1. and 2.2. certain types of cross-media contents (news stories; jokes; stock characters) fit into the By the end of this research article we aim Freudian model, on different levels and with to have demonstrated how the Freudian con- different specifications. Once more, through- cept of narcissism is still of major interdisci- out our analysis we will make constant ref- plinary relevance today, since it has proven erences to the case of Nujeen, for she can to be a highly adequate model for analysing easily recognise even the subtlest nuances this phenomenon in cross-media narratives. of explicit prejudice, based on her experi- ence as a refugee. But of course, there are also other implicit, camouflaged narcissis- POLITEIA · 2019 · Vol 9 · No 18 9 · No · 2019 Vol POLITEIA 12 © 2019 Published by Politeia (politeia.fpn.unibl.org). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and con- ditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/rs) 2. CONTEXTUALISATION OF THE integration has been a failure. According to PROBLEM the Eurostat (2019b), between 2015 (Q3) and 2017 (Q3), non-EU-citizens not only showed Before approaching our research problem, the lowest employment rates (53.7% to 54.6%) we must first consider three common insights but also the lowest growth (0.9%), when regarding contemporary society and its cor- compared to nationals (66% to 68.1%) and respondent narratives: mobile-EU-citizens (70.5% to 73%). Likewise, • Facts about people (e.g. biograph- non-EU-citizen unemployment rates reached ic events, ethnicity) stimulate our 19.5% in 2015 and 16% in 2017, still more than empathy towards them (identification) 8% above other groups. And as far as precari- because they provide them with a per- ous or less well-paid jobs are concerned (tem- sonal story (identity); porary, part-time), non-EU-citizens proved • We are living in the age of identi- once again to be the most vulnerable group ty, which is effectively portrayed by of all (ibid). storytelling; Notwithstanding, if we approach this • There is generally a narcissistic ele- matter with a view to the long term, other sta- ment in post-truth media reporting/ tistical facts emerge. For instance, the long- stories; term unemployment rate (as a percentage of total unemployment, ibid.), is actually lower These insights are not new to social scienc- for non-EU-citizens (44.2%) than for nation- es and humanities, of course. The following als (45.8%); and since 2015 it has decreased points (3.1 and 3.2) only substantiate what 4.5% among this first group, as compared to can be perceived by our ordinary experience a smaller decline (3.1%) among the second as citizens of the 21st Century, particularly in (ibid.). Also, non-EU-citizens are compar- the western world. However, they lead us to atively proactive entrepreneurs (Juchno & realise why it is so important these days to Agafitei 2017:24), as they share with nation- identify and analyse narcissistic patterns and als (28.8%) almost the same rate of self-em- dynamics in media storytelling. ployed employers (28.4%) – business owners with at least one employee – clearly above 2.1. Facts, Stats and Stories mobile-EU-citizens (23%). In light of this, based exclusively on On September 2, 2015 a group of Syr- numbers, we may find several reasons both ian refugees from Aleppo arrived in Les- against and in favour of Nujeen’s asylum bos. Among them was 16-year-old Nujeen approval. But of course, she is not a num- Mustafa. Based exclusively on statistical facts, ber (Young-Powell 2017), and this apparent nothing would distinguish her from any cliché is far more relevant than it seems, as other asylum applicant in the EU-28, among will become apparent from looking at facts over 5 million who had arrived since 2008, of another kind. Not merely statistical facts, 11-26 , pp Mustafa. Case Nujeen of Curious The STORYTELLING: IN CROSS-MEDIA NARCISSISM Almeida Sousa R., FREUDIAN including approximately 1.5 million teenag- but facts about the people behind the stats ers (Eurostat 2019a). Did the EU make the and their fascinating lives (Mustafa & Lamb right decision by approving her application? 2017:17). Therefore, let us also add a few facts Short-term statistics are not very encour- of the latter kind about Nujeen herself: She aging; they might even suggest that migrant is the youngest of her nine siblings, and the 13 © 2019 Објавио часопис Политеиа (politeia.fpn.unibl.org). Ово је чланак отвореног приступа и дистрибуира се у складу са “Creative Commons” лиценцом (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/rs) only one born with cerebral palsy. Back in ry, Socio-Constructivism, Feminist/Gender Aleppo, the building she lived in did not have Studies) as well as their academic antipodes an elevator.