Animating Narcissism: A Phenomenological Inquiry into Narcissistic Abuse Through Practice-Based 3D Animation

Animation research has increasingly explored the communication of subjective experience through abstraction, metaphor, embodiment, and visual storytelling. Existing scholarship has examined themes such as memory, trauma, identity, and emotional experience, highlighting animation's capacity to communicate forms of reality that extend beyond naturalistic representation (Wells 1998; Fahlenbrach & Reinerth 2018). However, there remains limited practice-based research investigating how animation can function as a phenomenological framework for exploring specific relational experiences such as narcissistic abuse. This research investigates how practice-based 3D animation can be used to explore and communicate the lived experience of narcissistic abuse through metaphor, cinematography, and character performance. Grounded in phenomenology, the study draws upon concepts of perception, embodiment, and lived experience (Merleau-Ponty 1964; van Manen 1990) and adopts a practice-based methodology informed by heuristic inquiry and artistic autoethnography (Candy 2006; Sullivan 2010; Moustakas 1990). The research is conducted through the development of ECHO, a three-minute 3D animated short film that functions as both a creative artefact and a site of inquiry. Through iterative experimentation, the project investigates how visual metaphor, camera language, and character performance can operate together to explore experiences of control, vulnerability, and diminished agency. Central to the project is the use of puppet-inspired character design and string-based metaphors that communicate relational power dynamics through symbolic and embodied forms of expression. The findings suggest that animation can function not only as a medium of communication but also as a method of inquiry into lived experience. The research contributes to discussions surrounding phenomenology, animation, and practice-based research by proposing a framework for exploring relational psychological experiences through creative practice.