Paperman, Patricia
Public and Private Emotions
- 2013.
95
Mainstream sociological analysis deals mainly with collective emotions. In this perspective, “individual,” “personal,” “partia,” or “private” emotions are devoid of social significance. This paper argues that such a conception misses the sociological relevance of these phenomena. Differentiating emotions along the collective/individual continuum, seeing the former as socially meaningful and the latter as “particular,” “private,” or “personal” can also be understood as a product of power relationships. An alternative ? feminist and gendered ? analysis of emotions could be developed, shedding light on a political dimension of emotional phenomena, and the complex morality of emotions.