Making Sense of Schizoposting

Abstract

ABSTRACT Online radicalization has gained considerable attention in the media and in academia. Much attention has shifted to so-called “homegrown terrorists.” Mental health concerns of those who display signs of online radicalization are identified as a potential contributing factor to this process. Although it seems both tempting to attribute mental health concerns, attempts to “make sense” of schizoposting (a bizarre and often violent form of online engagement) via conventional “clinical” analysis prove insufficient. This article offers a critical analysis of an extremely disturbing (online) phenomenon through the radical poststructuralist scholarship of late French philosophers, Deleuze and Guattari. Given that schizoposting and those individuals who engage in this behavior have yet to receive any attention in the nursing and health-related literature, it is critical that future research aims to better understand this population, such that appropriate interventions may be proposed.