Thomas J Scheff
Biographic Data
| ID | 77300 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Thomas J Scheff |
| GIVEN NAMES | Thomas J |
| FAMILY NAME | Scheff |
| SIGNATURE | SCHEFF T J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Santa Barbara |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 115 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1335 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 104 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 11 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1961 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 16 |
On the Concepts of Identity and Social Relationship
Like most concepts in sociology, the concept of a social relationship, though central to virtually any sociological analysis, is undeveloped. The concept is used today in much the same way as it was defined by Max Weber, as one of the key terms in his systematic sociology: “The term social relationship will be used to denote the behavior of a plurality of actors insofar as, in its meaningful content, the action of each takes account of that of th…
Bloody Revenge
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, mainta…
Biological Psychiatry and Labeling Theory 1
Biological approaches to mental illness support and help perpetuate the hiding of the emotional/relational world. To be sure, the continuing evidence for the labeling theory of mental illness is still sparse and mixed: a mixture of positive and negative findings. Biological psychiatry, in its crude popular form, is a collective representation that serves to maintain the emotional/relational scheme of things in our society. Psychiatric approaches …
A Psychiatric Interview
This chapter proposes to enter the emotional/relational world by microanalyzing the details of dialogue. It describes a model of attunement, the state of the social bond, the process through which interactants in the interview fail to achieve joint attention and feeling. The chapter illustrates the model with findings from recent research, and with a concrete episode of social interaction. Effective communication implies a social structure shared…
Labeling in the Family
This chapter introduces a new theory and method, which leads to modification of the earlier work on labeling in mental illness. It outlines a theory and method that specify the role of unacknowledged shame in mental illness and in the societal reaction. The theory involves a model of feeling traps, recursive loops of shame and anger. The method involves the systematic interpretation of sequences of events in discourse. Discourse analysis shows ho…
Individual and Social Systems in Deviance
One frequently noted deficiency in psychiatric formulations is the failure to incorporate social processes into the dynamics of mental disorder. Although the importance of these processes is increasingly recognized by psychiatrists, the conceptual models used in formulating research questions are basically concerned with individual rather than social systems. The psychoanalytic model of neurosis is basically a system of behavior that is contained…
The Social Institution of Insanity
This chapter discusses a sociological theory of the causation of stable mental disorder. Since the evidence advanced in support of the theory was scattered and fragmentary, it can only be suggested as a stimulus to further discussion and research. In many social-psychological discussions, however, role-playing is considered as a part of a social system. The social role complements and reflects the status of the insane in the social structure. The…
Conclusion
This chapter discusses a recommendation concerning interpretation of psychiatric symptoms, a theoretical formulation in which the investigation of the causes of mental illness is translated into a study of the dynamics of status systems, and recommendations for research and treatment involving the emotional/relational world. It suggests that both the theory and practice of psychiatric screening tend to be biased toward seeing behavior of the alle…
Decisions in Medicine 1
This chapter is concerned with a theory of stable mental illness. It discusses a decision-making problem that psychiatry shares with general medicine. The chapter describes one important norm for handling uncertainty in medical diagnosis, that judging a sick person well is more to be avoided than judging a well person sick, and suggests some of the consequences of the application of this norm in medical practice. Decision rules in law, statistics…
Social Control as a System
This chapter introduces the theory of social control and shows how it applies to nondeviant areas such as clothing and appearance, language, facial expressions, feeling, and thought. The theory of social control is the major interpretive model in social science. The social control perspective is much broader than the individual perspective in that it doesn&s;t prejudge in conflicts between individual deviants and society. The social control frame…
Negotiating Reality
This chapter shows the application of labeling ideas to two particular contexts: sessions with clients by a defense lawyer and by a practicing psychiatrist. It provides a very detailed and explicit contrast between the processes of labeling and normalization. The chapter explains the way in which actions and intentions are constructed in the act of assessing responsibility. The chapter illustrates the excerpts from two dialogues of negotiation wi…
Residual Deviance
The medical metaphor "mental illness" suggests a determinate process that occurs within the individual: the unfolding and development of disease. Since in the great majority of cases of mental illness, the existence of this underlying illness is unproved, need to discuss "symptomatic" behavior in terms that do not involve the assumption of illness. Two concepts seem to be suited best to the task of discussing psychiatric symptoms from a sociologi…
Microsociology
One of the directions that is needed in social/behavioral studies is examining in detail the world of here and now, second by second, and the larger world of individual and group behavior, and, the most difficult, the relationships between the two worlds. This entry proposes some of the steps that are needed, with particular emphasis on systematic studies of emotions
Humiliation-Revenge in Warfare
This chapter, "Humiliation-Revenge in Warfare: Emotions, Nationalism, and War," from Thomas J. Scheff's forthcoming book, explores the role of humiliation and the subsequent desire for revenge as drivers of warfare. Scheff argues that entire nations can experience humiliation, leading to wars of revenge, citing World Wars I and II as potential examples. He examines the period between 1872 and 1914 in France, highlighting the pervasive influence o…
Being Mentally Ill
Originally published in 1966, "Being Mentally Ill: A Sociological Theory" by Thomas J. Scheff offered a groundbreaking sociological perspective on mental illness. Scheff argues that mental illness is not solely a medical or psychological problem but is significantly shaped by social processes. He introduces the concept of "residual deviance," referring to behaviors that violate social norms but don't fit established categories of deviance. Scheff…
Shame and the Social Bond
Toward Integration
Toward Defining Basic Emotions
This essay proposes a group of six basic emotions defined as concepts for scholarly use. Such a step seems to be needed because of the present chaos of emotion terminology. The public and most scientific studies use vernacular terms, even though they are extremely ambiguous and misleading. Both the public and scholars also seem to be caught up in a mass of assumptions and avoidances. To illustrate steps toward clarity, four forward-looking studie…
Response to Commentary by Link
Toward a concept of stigma
Role-taking, Emotion and the Two Selves
This note links three hitherto separate subjects: role-taking, meditation, and theories of emotion, in order to conceptualize the makeup of the self. The idea of role-taking plays a central part in sociological theories of the self. Meditation implies the same process in terms of a deep self able to witness itself. Drama theories also depend upon a deep self that establishes a safe zone for resolving intense emotions. All three approaches imply b…
A Note on the Origins of Deinstitutionalization
A Note on the Origins of Deinstitutionalization." Deviant Behavior, 35(6), pp. 475–476 Additional informationNotes on contributorsThomas ScheffTHOMAS SCHEFF is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is past president of the Pacific Sociological Association, and past chair of the Emotions Section of the American Sociological Association. Some of his publications are Being Mentally Ill, Microsociology, Bloody Revenge,…
The Ubiquity of Hidden Shame in Modernity
This essay proposes that shame may be one of the keys to understanding our civilization: shame or its anticipation is virtually ubiquitous, yet, at the same time, usually invisible. Since the vernacular term for shame is wildly ambiguous, a tentative definition is proposed. C.H. Cooley's idea of the looking-glass self implies that shame and pride can be seen as signals of the state of the social bond. Theoretical work by Cooley and Erving Goffman…
Goffman on Emotions
This essay proposes that Goffman's basic method was the intuitive recognition of generic examples of social interaction. This focus on examples, when considered from the point of view of two of Cooley's general propositions, helps explain the meaning of Goffman's metaphor of theatrical performance, and his insistence on the risk of shame in all interaction. These ideas make sense following Pascal's emphasis on the intuitive element in finding new…
A social/emotional theory of ‘mental illness’
One reason that theories of mental illness have made little progress may be their focus on individuals, omitting the social/relational and emotional world. Adding these components will be difficult, however: in modern societies they have become virtually invisible, particularly the emotion of shame. The theory outlined here is based on the work of Cooley, Elias, Lewis and Goffman: shame is both social and individual and, if anticipation is includ…
Shame and the Social Bond
Emotion has long been recognized in sociology as crucially important, but most references to it are generalized and vague. In this essay, I nominate shame, specifically, as the premier social emotion. First I review the individualized treatment of shame in psychoanalysis and psychology, and the absence of social context. Then I consider the contributions to the social dimensions of shame by six sociologists (Georg Simmel, Charles Cooley, Norbert …
Shame and Conformity
Being Mentally Ill
Originally published in 1966, "Being Mentally Ill: A Sociological Theory" by Thomas J. Scheff offered a groundbreaking sociological perspective on mental illness. Scheff argues that mental illness is not solely a medical or psychological problem but is significantly shaped by social processes. He introduces the concept of "residual deviance," referring to behaviors that violate social norms but don't fit established categories of deviance. Scheff…
Shame in Self and Society
This article proposes that shame is the master emotion of everyday life but is usually invisible in modern societies because of taboo. A review of shame studies suggests a taboo that results in denial and silence. The studies by Cooley, Freud, Elias, Lynd, Goffman, Lewis, and Tomkins have been largely ignored. Their work suggests a vital connection between shame and social life: shame can be seen as a signal of a threat to the bond. If so, unders…
The Labelling Theory of Mental Illness
T his paper will present an evaluation of the labelling theory of mental illness. To this date, there have been three critiques of labelling theory, those by Gove (1970a), Gibbs (1972), and Davis (1972). Gibbs and Davis, for the most part, evaluate formal aspects of the theory; Gove evaluates its substance. Gibbs suggests that the labelling approach is not really a scientific theory, in that it is not sufficiently explicit and unambiguous. Davis …
Toward a Sociological Model of Consensus
Two distinct meanings emerge from a review of the literature on consensus: agreement, and co-orientation. Using the second meaning, a conceptual definition of degree of consensus is formulated which is based on a social system model, rather than on individual system models. Drawing upon earlier research, two operational definitions of this model are proposed. Finally, a set of propositions relate degree of consensus in a group to the type of coor…
The Distancing of Emotion in Ritual [and Comments and Reply]
There is an ambivalence toward ritual in social science. On the one hand, it is seen as immensely valuable to the individual and to society. On the other hand, there is an underlying feeling that ritual is impotent. This paper presents a theory of the distancing of emotion which integrates the positive and negative orientations toward ritual. The theory links ritual to the process of catharsis of repressed emotion, which subsumes the positive ori…
Looking-Glass Self
My thesis is that for most of his career, Erving Goffman was a symbolic interactionist in the Cooley line. The only sustained theoretical structure in Goffman's work before 1974 follows Cooley's conjecture of the looking-glass self. Cooley assumed shared awareness, that we "live in the minds of others." He also realized that shared awareness is virtually invisible in modern societies and proposed pride or shame as the emotions that resulted. Goff…
The Structure of Context
This article proposes that Goffman's Frame Analysis can be interpreted as a step toward unpacking the idea of context. His analysis implies a recursive model involving frames within frames. The key problem is that neither Goffman nor anyone else has clearly defined what is meant by a frame. I propose that it can be represented by a word, phrase, or proposition. A subjective context can be represented as an assembly of these items, joined together…
The Societal Reaction to Deviance
Journal Article The Societal Reaction to Deviance: Ascriptive Elements in the Psychiatric Screening of Mental Patients in a Midwestern State Get access Thomas J. Scheff Thomas J. Scheff University of California, Santa Barbara Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Social Problems, Volume 11, Issue 4, Spring 1964, Pages 401–413, https://doi.org/10.2307/799195 Published: 07 August 2014
Microsociology
Negotiating Reality
This paper illustrates the difference between absolute and social conceptions of responsibility, by employing the perspective of the sociology of knowledge. Comparing the degree of shared awareness and the organization of the format of the transaction in initial psychiatric and legal interviews, propositions showing the relationship between the power and authority of the interactants, and the resultant shared definition of the client's responsibi…
The Role of the Mentally Ill and the Dynamics of Mental Disorder
Drawing upon earlier formulations, this paper further develops an explicitly sociological theory of the causation and course of stable mental disorder. Central to this theory are nine propositions which require empirical testing. By delimiting the kinds of behavior which are to be explained, by drawing upon findings from previous studies, and by utilizing purely sociological concepts (such as the concept of residual deviance), a model is proposed…
The Ubiquity of Hidden Shame in Modernity
This essay proposes that shame may be one of the keys to understanding our civilization: shame or its anticipation is virtually ubiquitous, yet, at the same time, usually invisible. Since the vernacular term for shame is wildly ambiguous, a tentative definition is proposed. C.H. Cooley's idea of the looking-glass self implies that shame and pride can be seen as signals of the state of the social bond. Theoretical work by Cooley and Erving Goffman…
Toward Integration in the Social Psychology of Emotions
Contemporary research on emotions has been increasingly demarcated into four self-contained segments: the cultural, biological, inner, and outer aspects of emotional processes. A parallel trend is the increasing hegemony of the perspective of those who study only the cultural and outside segments. Research on cultural variation, the causation of emotional states, and cultural universals is reviewed and evaluated. This review suggests that the evi…
Goffman on Emotions
This essay proposes that Goffman's basic method was the intuitive recognition of generic examples of social interaction. This focus on examples, when considered from the point of view of two of Cooley's general propositions, helps explain the meaning of Goffman's metaphor of theatrical performance, and his insistence on the risk of shame in all interaction. These ideas make sense following Pascal's emphasis on the intuitive element in finding new…
Male Emotions/Relationships and Violence
In this article, a theory of the emotional/relational origins of male violence is outlined, and illustrated by episodes in Hitler's life. Drawing on earlier work on aggression and violence, it is proposed that three conditions lead to rage and violence: (i) no affectional attachments, (ii) a single overarching obsession, and (iii) the complete repression of shame. Only to the extent that all three of these conditions are fully met is destructive …
Toward Defining Basic Emotions
This essay proposes a group of six basic emotions defined as concepts for scholarly use. Such a step seems to be needed because of the present chaos of emotion terminology. The public and most scientific studies use vernacular terms, even though they are extremely ambiguous and misleading. Both the public and scholars also seem to be caught up in a mass of assumptions and avoidances. To illustrate steps toward clarity, four forward-looking studie…
Cognition and Emotion? The Dead End in Self‐Esteem Research
This article suggests that studies of self‐esteem using scales have reached a dead end, and suggest alternative directions. First we show how significance tests have obscured meager results. According to reviews, this huge body of research has yielded no substantial findings. Some sub‐fields show consistent, but trivially small, effects; reviews of the entire field show none at all. Most important, the size of effects does not seem to be increasi…
Universal Expressive Needs
This article proposes a theory of expressive needs common to all human beings, which grow out of biologically based 'coarse emotions': grief, fear, anger, shame, joy, and love-attachment. In order to locate the new theory within the framework of existing thought on the relation between culture and biology, I classify, in a provisional way, the major theorists as belonging to one of the following schools of thought: instinctivist, culturist, or hu…
Reply to Chauncey and Gove
A theory of catharsis
Toward Resolving the Controversy over 'Thick Description
Reevaluation Counseling
Presidential Address
There is a tradition in this association that the president's address should review the past, or set trends for the future. I will try to do both, first reviewing the main themes in sociological research, then sketching my own vision of sociology and the human sciences. I offer these thoughts with the hope of enlisting your cooperation toward the betterment of our discipline and our society. In keeping with the theme of this meeting, the sociolog…
Control Over Policy by Attendants in a Mental Hospital
A central problem in the study of organizations is the extent of participation in policy decisions by organization members. On one extreme are autocracies, in which policy is formed almost completely within the superior group; on the other, examples of dominance or control by subordinate groups: bureaucratic sabotage in government, and restriction of production by work groups in industry are two examples. Whether the situation is that of autocrac…
Perceptual Orientation and Role Performance of Staff Members in a Mental Hospital Ward
The Role of the Mentally Ill and the Dynamics of Mental Disorder
Drawing upon earlier formulations, this paper further develops an explicitly sociological theory of the causation and course of stable mental disorder. Central to this theory are nine propositions which require empirical testing. By delimiting the kinds of behavior which are to be explained, by drawing upon findings from previous studies, and by utilizing purely sociological concepts (such as the concept of residual deviance), a model is proposed…
Preferred Errors in Diagnosis
Judging a sick person well is more to be avoided than judging a well person sick. This informal norm for handling uncertainty is part of the subculture of the medical profession. The assumptions underlying it are examined, and it is suggested that physicians guided by the rule, too often place patients in the ‘sick role’ who ought not to be
Social Conditions for Rationality
The Societal Reaction to Deviance
Journal Article The Societal Reaction to Deviance: Ascriptive Elements in the Psychiatric Screening of Mental Patients in a Midwestern State Get access Thomas J. Scheff Thomas J. Scheff University of California, Santa Barbara Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Social Problems, Volume 11, Issue 4, Spring 1964, Pages 401–413, https://doi.org/10.2307/799195 Published: 07 August 2014
Changes in Public and Private Language among Spanish‐Speaking Migrants to an Industrial City
Psychiatry and Religion
Concepts of Insanity in the United States, 1789-1865
Users and Non-Users of a Student Psychiatric Clinic
Case Studies in Behavior Modification
Case Studies in Behavior Modification. Edited by Leonard P. Ullman and Leonard Krasner. Price, not given. Pp 401. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Inc., 383 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10017, 1966. This book was written to make accessible in one volume, products of clinical application of learning theories, published since 1960. This was year that Eysenck's book, Behavior Therapy and Neurosis, was published. current volume dif¬ fers from Eysenck's work in…
A Theory of Social Coordination Applicable to Mixed-Motive Games
A theory of mixed-motive games such as Prisoner's Dilemma is outlined. The theory has three components: coordination, communication, and consensus. The operational definitions of these concepts are moves (coordination), messages (communication), and attributions (consensus). Findings in studies of experimental games are reviewed within the framework offered by this theory, and suggestions are made as to directions for future research
Toward a Sociological Model of Consensus
Two distinct meanings emerge from a review of the literature on consensus: agreement, and co-orientation. Using the second meaning, a conceptual definition of degree of consensus is formulated which is based on a social system model, rather than on individual system models. Drawing upon earlier research, two operational definitions of this model are proposed. Finally, a set of propositions relate degree of consensus in a group to the type of coor…
Negotiating Reality
This paper illustrates the difference between absolute and social conceptions of responsibility, by employing the perspective of the sociology of knowledge. Comparing the degree of shared awareness and the organization of the format of the transaction in initial psychiatric and legal interviews, propositions showing the relationship between the power and authority of the interactants, and the resultant shared definition of the client's responsibi…
The Jury and the Defense of Insanity
The Stability of Deviant Behavior Over Time
An earlier article by Clarizio examined studies of the stability of deviant behavior. This issue is crucial in evaluating the claims of two competing theories of mental illness. Existing studies of psychiatric symptoms over time appear provisionally to suggest that unlabeled deviant behavior is transitory and labeled deviant behavior is stable. Although the studies are crude and inconclusive, the existing weight of evidence may be interpreted as …
Reevaluation Counseling
Intersubjectivity and Emotion
A classic question in philosophy has been the concern with &dquo;other minds.&dquo; How-is it possible for one person to really know the mind of another? How can communication take place between individuals whose consciousnesses are separate and distinct (see Ayer, 1967)? The problem of &dquo;meaning&dquo; quickly confronts this issue. In what sense and in what way does an object (a word, a gesture, or an event) have the same meaning for differen…
The Societal Reaction to Deviance
Schizophrenia as Ideology
Reply to Nettler
The Labelling Theory of Mental Illness
T his paper will present an evaluation of the labelling theory of mental illness. To this date, there have been three critiques of labelling theory, those by Gove (1970a), Gibbs (1972), and Davis (1972). Gibbs and Davis, for the most part, evaluate formal aspects of the theory; Gove evaluates its substance. Gibbs suggests that the labelling approach is not really a scientific theory, in that it is not sufficiently explicit and unambiguous. Davis …
Reply to Chauncey and Gove
Labeling Madness
Reply to Imershein and Simons
Psychology (72 works) · Sociology (57 works) · Social Psychology (40 works) · Philosophy (35 works) · Epistemology (30 works) · Philosophy (26 works) · Social Psychology (26 works) · Computer Science (24 works) · Emotions and Moral Behavior (23 works) · Political science (23 works)