Involuntary celibacy, or incel, as a phenomenon is steadily growing. Previous studies show that this group suffers from severe mental illness, which potentially could develop into something dangerous for both themselves and society. Research regarding early interventions and methods which are specifically aimed at and designed for incels and their problems are currently almost non-existing. The aim of this study is therefore to investigate whether incels seek support from the social work interventions to get help with mental illness and their destructive thoughts and feelings. Thus, we want to gain a deeper understanding of incels’ attitude towards seeking help. This qualitative study is based on concealed netnographic observations on two open incel-forums. Furthermore, this study uses a thematic analysis method, which was used to analyze our empirical material. During our observations we have identified repetitions, local expressions and similarities and differences, which have been developed into different main themes and subthemes. Additionally, our empirical material was analyzed by using theories of social identity, group polarization, and the concept of preventive social work. The results of the present study demonstrate that the majority of incels have a negative attitude towards seeking help. Moreover, some incels believe that it is possible to improve themselves. The main opinion, however, is that it is not possible to improve, and thus, incels are doomed to live a life in solitude where the only way out is suicide. Several incels have ideas and thoughts about how the help should be designed, but these thoughts are often very extreme and often contain a negative view of women and sexually successful men. In the end, it is incels’ reluctance that weighs the heaviest, where society, women and sexually successful men are considered evil and incels are considered good.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-109853 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Andersson, Desirée, Karlsson, Matilda |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för socialt arbete (SA) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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