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 5
... of connecting emotions that bond people together . It is especially important because it holds people together in times of trouble . Furthermore , sympathy flows among societal members not haphazardly but THE SOCIAL CHARACTER OF SYMPATHY 5.
... of connecting emotions that bond people together . It is especially important because it holds people together in times of trouble . Furthermore , sympathy flows among societal members not haphazardly but THE SOCIAL CHARACTER OF SYMPATHY 5.
Page 17
... troubles or giving them a feeling of pride in their altruism . Similarly , receiving sympathy can be demeaning , but ... trouble receives sympathy , he or she may experience a comforting sense of intersubjectivity , of being understood ...
... troubles or giving them a feeling of pride in their altruism . Similarly , receiving sympathy can be demeaning , but ... trouble receives sympathy , he or she may experience a comforting sense of intersubjectivity , of being understood ...
Page 23
... trouble talking about sympathy or even defining it . Furthermore , the rules and logics for giving and getting it are largely taken for granted : they are not simple , unidimensional , or easily explained . And , third , sympathy can ...
... trouble talking about sympathy or even defining it . Furthermore , the rules and logics for giving and getting it are largely taken for granted : they are not simple , unidimensional , or easily explained . And , third , sympathy can ...
Page 26
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Page 30
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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