As violence erupts in endless cycles and old grievances reemerge throughout the world, we are challenged to examine the underpinnings of protracted conflict. In this bold new work, Thomas Scheff argues that the roots of protracted conflict lie in unacknowledged feelings of shame and rage. Scheff builds from the assumption that the social bond is a real and palpable phenomena and that in every type of human contact the bond is either built, maintained, repaired, or damaged. He then demonstr...

Erving Goffman (1922-82) was arguably one of the most influential American sociologists of the twentieth century. A keen observer of the interaction order of everyday life, Goffman's books, which have sold in the hundreds of thousands, continue to be widely read and his concepts have permanently entered the sociology lexicon. This volume consists of ten original essays, all written by prominent Goffman scholars, that critically assess Goffman's many contributions to various areas of study,...

What do pop songs have to say about love? Surprisingly, this book shows that most popular love songs express much more about alienation, infatuation, estrangement, jealousy, and heartbreak than about love. Scheff takes the reader on a tour of popular lyrics from 80 years of American song to reveal the emotional and relational meaning of lyrics. He shows that popular love songs typically steer listeners away from a healthy connection to the emotions surrounding love. Readers will gain a dee...

"Thomas Scheff demonstrates why Goffman remains such a key figure for social scientists. Goffman may have been cautious about recognizing the role of emotions in social life, but Scheff boldly and creatively shows why the sociological and the psychological are necessarily intertwined. This is certainly a book for all serious analysts of social behaviour." Michael Billig, Nottingham University "Scheff's critical eye is equal to his subject, shrewdly appreciating Goffman's many virtues while...

In incorporating social process into a model of the dynamics of mental disorders, this text questions the individualistic model favoured in current psychiatric and psychoanalytic theory. While the conventional psychiatric viewpoint seeks the causes of mental illness, Scheff views "the symptoms of mental illness" as the violation of residual rules - social norms so taken for granted that they are not explicitly verbalized. The sociological theory developed by Scheff to account for such beha...

Alienation has objective, social-structural determinants, yet is experienced subjectively as a psychological state involving both emotion and cognition. Part I considers conceptualizations of alienation and affect in historical context, emphasizing Rousseau, Hegel, Marx, Simmel, and Weber. Part II develops a theory of the affective bases of Seeman’s original five varieties of alienation – normlessness, meaninglessness, self-estrangement, cultural estrangement, and powerlessness. The book a...

A study of aggression from the renowned social psychologist and New York Times –bestselling author of The Art of Loving and Escape from Freedom ."Rich and provocative . . . a major book from the pen of a major writer." — The Washington Post Book WorldThroughout history, humans have sh...

This volume presents in a forthright and lively way, an account of the philosophical position generally identified as 'Postpositivistic' that undergirds much of mainstream research in education and the related social sciences. The discussion throughout is informed by recent developments in philosophy of science. Authors D. C. Phillips and Nicholas C. Burbules cite a number of interesting examples from the educational research and evaluation literature to illustrate the value of a scientifi...

How does the situation we're in influence the way we behave and think? Professors Ross and Nisbett eloquently argue that the context we find ourselves in substantially affects our behavior in this timely reissue of one of social psychology's classic textbooks.

When The Culture of Narcissism was first published, it was clear that Christopher Lasch had identified something important: what was happening to American society in the wake of the decline of the family over the last century.The book quickly became a bestseller. This edition includes a new afterword, "The Culture of Narcissism Revisited."

In the long-awaited second edition of Basic Concepts of Intercultural Communication, Milton J. Bennett provides a comprehensive overview of the field from a constructivist perspective. In addition to his insightful analysis, Bennett offers a full complement of classic readings on the topic of intercultural communication, including:"Science and Linguistics," by Benjamin Lee Whorf"The Power of Hidden Differences," by Edward T. Hall"Culture: A Perceptual Appr...

The legendary social psychologist and New York Times–bestselling author meditates on ideas of mental health and normalcy in contemporary society.At the beginning of the 1950s, Erich Fromm increasingly questioned whether people in contemporary industrial society were mentally healthy. Eventually the topic of various lectures, Fromm's new social psychoanalytic approach enabled him to further develop the psychoanalytic method into a comprehensive critique of t...