Misery and Company: Sympathy in Everyday LifeIn a kind of social tour of sympathy, Candace Clark reveals that the emotional experience we call sympathy has a history, logic, and life of its own. Although sympathy may seem to be a natural, reflexive reaction, people are not born knowing when, for whom, and in what circumstances sympathy is appropriate. Rather, they learn elaborate, highly specific rules—different rules for men than for women—that guide when to feel or display sympathy, when to claim it, and how to accept it. Using extensive interviews, cultural artifacts, and "intensive eavesdropping" in public places, such as hospitals and funeral parlors, as well as analyzing charity appeals, blues lyrics, greeting cards, novels, and media reports, Clark shows that we learn culturally prescribed rules that govern our expression of sympathy. "Clark's . . . research methods [are] inventive and her glimpses of U.S. life revealing. . . . And you have to love a social scientist so respectful of Miss Manners."—Clifford Orwin, Toronto Globe and Mail "Clark offers a thought-provoking and quite interesting etiquette of sympathy according to which we ought to act in order to preserve the sympathy credits we can call on in time of need."—Virginia Quarterly Review |
From inside the book
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Page xii
... freewriting data . Diane Baillif and Michael Cassidy conducted written interviews . Mary Dassing and Danielle Evans undertook library research . Debra Rose com- mented on the manuscript . Two undergraduate classes conducted surveys ...
... freewriting data . Diane Baillif and Michael Cassidy conducted written interviews . Mary Dassing and Danielle Evans undertook library research . Debra Rose com- mented on the manuscript . Two undergraduate classes conducted surveys ...
Page 8
... freewritings " of more than SO subjects I trained to write about emotions by adapting a technique English professors developed to encourage creative writing ( see Clark and Kravanja 1990 ) . These surveys , interviews , observations ...
... freewritings " of more than SO subjects I trained to write about emotions by adapting a technique English professors developed to encourage creative writing ( see Clark and Kravanja 1990 ) . These surveys , interviews , observations ...
Page 9
... freewritings ; I indicate these sources parentheti- cally within the text . I have given fictitious names to nine of my intensive interview respon- dents , the ones whom I quote most extensively , so that readers can follow these ...
... freewritings ; I indicate these sources parentheti- cally within the text . I have given fictitious names to nine of my intensive interview respon- dents , the ones whom I quote most extensively , so that readers can follow these ...
Page 10
... freewriters . Data gathering in the field was necessarily limited by the particular circumstances in which I observed my field ... Freewriting " sections of the appendix . I want to make it clear that I do not consider age , sex , " race ...
... freewriters . Data gathering in the field was necessarily limited by the particular circumstances in which I observed my field ... Freewriting " sections of the appendix . I want to make it clear that I do not consider age , sex , " race ...
Page 23
... freewritings , and observations of everyday interaction . Unfortunately , we cannot travel all the roads at once . Our route will in- clude well - established highways that take us to the past and newer roads leading to the present ...
... freewritings , and observations of everyday interaction . Unfortunately , we cannot travel all the roads at once . Our route will in- clude well - established highways that take us to the past and newer roads leading to the present ...
Contents
2 | |
Forms and Process | 26 |
Sympathy Entrepreneurs and the Grounds for Sympathy | 80 |
4 The Socioemotional Economy Social Value and Sympathy Margin | 128 |
5 Sympathy Biography and the Rules of Sympathy Etiquette | 158 |
The Sympathetic Response | 194 |
7 Sympathy Microhierarchy and Micropolitics | 226 |
8 Epilogue | 252 |
Research Strategies | 261 |
References | 281 |
Name Index | 299 |
Subject Index | 304 |
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Common terms and phrases
accounts actions actor American Appeal asked attention believe cards chapter characters claim consider create cultural described display economy emotions empathy example exchange expect experience explained feel sorry felt Field notes follow friends gifts give giving sympathy grounds husband important individual instance interaction Interview involved judge kind label less lives logic look luck married mean moral mother never notes obligation offer parents percent person plights poor presented Press principle problems reactions receive reciprocity relationship respondents role rules sense sentiment situation social society socioemotional Sociology someone sometimes story sympa sympathetic sympathizee sympathy margins talk things thought tion trouble understand usually victims vignette woman women worker worth York young