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 vi
... Sympathetic Response 194 7 Sympathy , Microhierarchy , and Micropolitics 8 Epilogue 252 Appendix : Research Strategies 261 References 226 281 Name Index 299 Subject Index 304 To the memory of Doris Eugenia Clark who the gave CONTENTS.
... Sympathetic Response 194 7 Sympathy , Microhierarchy , and Micropolitics 8 Epilogue 252 Appendix : Research Strategies 261 References 226 281 Name Index 299 Subject Index 304 To the memory of Doris Eugenia Clark who the gave CONTENTS.
Page x
... sympathetic company . Our society has regularized and institutionalized sympathy give - and - take . As Emile Durk- heim might have said , this give - and - take is part of the panoply of rituals that celebrate society and uplift and ...
... sympathetic company . Our society has regularized and institutionalized sympathy give - and - take . As Emile Durk- heim might have said , this give - and - take is part of the panoply of rituals that celebrate society and uplift and ...
Page 6
... sympathetic , selfless people— " saints " of one variety or another . Thus , the eighteenth - century philosopher Adam Smith described sym- pathy as part of " human nature " in The Theory of Moral Sentiments ( a precur- sor to his more ...
... sympathetic , selfless people— " saints " of one variety or another . Thus , the eighteenth - century philosopher Adam Smith described sym- pathy as part of " human nature " in The Theory of Moral Sentiments ( a precur- sor to his more ...
Page 9
... sympathetic characters ? How do the patterns vary for different groups and subcultures ? Another goal was to explain the individual and social consequences of sympathy give - and - take . How does sympathy pervade and help regulate the ...
... sympathetic characters ? How do the patterns vary for different groups and subcultures ? Another goal was to explain the individual and social consequences of sympathy give - and - take . How does sympathy pervade and help regulate the ...
Page 11
... sympathetic person , an empathetic person . At least I hope people see me that way . " Failing to sympathize from time to time , or limiting one's sympathy only to an inner circle , is to risk attributions of coldness and heartlessness ...
... sympathetic person , an empathetic person . At least I hope people see me that way . " Failing to sympathize from time to time , or limiting one's sympathy only to an inner circle , is to risk attributions of coldness and heartlessness ...
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