Anmol Prithani
I was recently hooked to a TV series called You, where the protagonist Joe Goldberg is seen obsessively stalking a young woman, Beck. Goldberg moves swiftly through the series with calculated decisions, meticulously gathering information and using his intellect to find ways to get closer to Beck. He goes to huge lengths to ‘control’ this woman which prompted me to ask the question: how does this happen? In this article, I will explore existing psychological research on stalker behaviour and parallel these findings with Joe Goldberg’s portrayal as one.
To define stalking, it is viewed as an illogical or irrational preoccupation with another individual. (Sansone, 2010) Existing research suggests that there might be an association with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and stalking. This association is gaining momentum because according to the DSM IV, BPD is characterised by a “pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships.” Researchers also surveyed self-referred stalkers and they scored highly on the BPD characteristics scale. (Lewis, 2001) In the television series, Goldberg is seen to have been involved in another intense relationship with a woman named Candace, before Beck, who routinely torments him with flashbacks. He is evidently uncomfortable with talking about her and avoids the topic, suggesting that she may have been murdered and thus, victimized by Goldberg. With Beck as well, Goldberg gets severely affected with Beck’s every behaviour to the point where he murders other people who are getting closer to Beck, suggesting the intensity with which he feels for her. Additionally, psychiatrists in the United Kingdom conducted retrospective analysis on stalkers as depicted by their victimised patients and the most common diagnosis was BPD.
Research also suggests that another association, although rare, with stalkers is erotomania. Erotomania is the delusional belief that the other individual is in love with them, even when that is contradictory evidence. In the opening scene, when Beck walks into Goldberg’s book store, he assesses her carefully. He narrates that she is wearing a skirt and jingling accessories to attract his attention, despite the fact that they are complete strangers. When she decides to pay with her credit card instead of cash, he is confident that she wanted him to know her name and thus, begins stalking her on social media later.
Other existing research pairs stalkers with childhood trauma and insecurity from a young age, based on ‘attachment theory’. (Patton, 2010) Not surprisingly, the series did not leave out this caveat of a stalker either. As the series progresses, we find out that Goldberg went through a harsh and lonely childhood, spending most of his time reading books in the bookstore he is currently working in, under the supervision of the strict owner who would often lock him up and abuse him whenever he made a mistake. As a child, he was also placed in foster care with no siblings and thus had no emotional or social support except his books and the store owner, Mr. Mooney.
Lastly, a psychology professor from City University of NewYork, Michele Galietta, links severe lack of leisure activities and social relationships to stalking. She argues, based on her research, that most stalkers have little or no strong relationships in their life and usually have ‘narrow interests’, making the victim of their stalking their primary relationship. (Galietta, 2017) Drawing a parallel, Joe Goldberg, also had no friends from the beginning. At most, he minimally interacted with his co-worker at the bookshop and his neighbour’s child who was often sitting outside his home. He did not share his feelings or thoughts with anyone and did not have much to do either. His day involved only his apartment and the bookstore, apart from the detours he took for Beck. Very clearly, his only interests were books.
In conclusion, while one study attributes 50 percent of 137 stalking offenders with a personality disorder such as BPD, the rest had no history of mental disorder. (Jones et. al, 2018) Therefore establishing no hard-and-fast causes of stalker behaviour. There is research with a variety of associations as explained in the article, but like Galietta told VICE, “there is no typical stalker” and a number of social, psychological, and developmental factors can cause criminalised stalking. However, the series succeeded in acknowledging a range of factors, creating a stereotypical portrayal of a bored, delusional, late 20s man with no actual relationships and a lonely and traumatic past.
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