2019 Volume 18 Issue 1 Pages 176-196
Shy and reserved individuals confront challenges in modern society, which incorporates and emphasizes social interactions. Critical narrative phenomenology, designed on the basis of Langdridge's "Critical Narrative Analysis", was used to analyze four cases in which extremely shy individuals directly sought online support. Collectively, the advice offered in these four cases emphasized the adoption of an "indifferent attitude toward sociability" over "consciously improving social skills". The author found that these suggestions corresponded to his own life experiences. The phenomenological concepts of "fusion of horizons" and "seeing an essence" were used to analyze and interpret the data. This revealed interpersonal hypersensitivity to be a core problem in these individuals. The analysis also revealed that the socially inhibitory and avoidant behaviors described online differed from those associated with autism spectrum disorder, which is frequently discussed in medicine, education and the mass media. Application of a critical theory approach opposed to medicalization of shyness is discussed.