Identity Absorption in Acquaintance Cyberstalking: A Proposed Construct and Victim-Survey Protocol

Stalking research has long treated women as victims and men as perpetrators. The smaller literature that does study female stalkers is dominated by erotomania — the clinical delusion that another person is secretly in love with the stalker — and by other delusional disorders. This paper identifies a pattern that the existing literature does not name: sustained, non-delusional stalking of a real-world acquaintance in which the perpetrator progressively absorbs the target's identity (professional language, aesthetic, and self-presentation) and enacts that absorption through digital platforms over a period of years, in some cases escalating to sexual harassment. A verified literature review of 40 sources across English, French, Portuguese, Dutch, and Japanese scholarship finds no existing construct that captures this configuration. Five adjacent constructs (identity fusion, celebrity-worship absorption-addiction, digital doppelgängers, cyberstalking impersonation tactics, and parasocial identity absorption) each describe a structurally different phenomenon. The paper therefore proposes a working definition of identity absorption (offline-originated, digitally sustained) and maps four specific gaps in the existing literature. It then asks why and how this pattern might occur, drawing on two literatures never before connected to stalking: research on relational aggression between adult women (a possible motive) and on identities built by borrowing another's (a possible mechanism). Both are stated as hypotheses, not findings, as is the internalized-homophobia dimension of same-gender cases. Finally, the paper presents a purpose-built anonymous survey instrument designed to test whether the pattern exists in other victims' experiences. The instrument, planned analyses, and limitations are reported in full to support replication and critique.