Mobbing and Groupthink in the Movie Malena

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The movie is sequenced by paralleling the five stages of mobbing: critical incident, psychological assault, group unity, branding and expulsion (Elliot, 2009). Mobbing (2011) was originally used to describe animal behavior but now the term is used to describe human behavior and the definition is:

...an emotional assault. It begins when an individual becomes the target of disrespectful and harmful behavior. Through innuendo, rumors, and public discrediting, a hostile environment is created in which one individual gathers others to willingly, or unwillingly, participate in continuous malevolent actions to force a person out of the workplace.

This definition refers to a workplace and even though she does not have a job she is subjected to the same behavior. Stage one (critical incident) is where Maléna is the most beautiful women in the town and the women become jealous as the men cannot hide their attraction they have towards her. Stage two (psychological assault) begins as no one will have anything to do with her and false accusations are made of her. Stage three (group unity) is when the wars starts and the town “agrees” she should be helped in anyway. Stage four (branding) is when she realizes no one will help her out and the war is underway in Italy and she prostitutes herself in order to survive in essence takes on their perception of her. The final stage (expulsion) is when the women in the town beat her. Giuseppe Tornatore shows in his movie Maléna how communication is not only verbal but nonverbal and how cruel it can be as groupthink targets a victim: town vs. Maléna.

Stage one

Stage one begins to take place right at the beginning of the movie. The critical incident is Maléna being superior in everything she does. Not only is she naturally beautiful in face and form but she is a talented seamstress and she makes and wears the most beautiful clothes in the town. Her long thick hair is a contrast of the short hair styles most women wear and most of the women wear frumpy dark clothes with virtually no shape. She is polite and respectful and keeps to herself as she enters the town to not only take care of her father who lives alone but search for a job as well. As she leaves the job office, it is known among the townsfolk no one will hire her. Through malicious gossip the townsfolk are suspicious of her as she is silent.

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