Emotions and Violence: Shame and Rage in Destructive Conflicts

What causes violence? Thomas Scheff and Suzanne Retzinger deftly explore this age-old question. What emerges is an extraordinarily innovative explanation that gives fresh hope for reducing physical and emotional violence in the world and in our times.The authors provide remarkable new insights into the sources of destructive conflict. They explore human interaction in psychotherapy sessions, marital quarrels, TV game shows, and high politics. Their original interpretation of a classic work of fiction, Goethe's The Sufferings of Young Werther, and case studies of Hitler and his master architect, Albert Speer, offer additional, powerful illustrations of their theory: violence arises from the denial of emotions particularly from the denial of shame and from hidden alienation in relationships.Researchers in violence, psychotherapists, and criminal justice professionals will welcome this thoughtful inquiry that integrates different disciplines and spans topics from alienation and conscience building to the hidden world of gesture, implication, and emotion. Scheff and Retzinger's examples and recommendations furnish a practical blueprint for understanding and reducing physical and emotional violence at both the interpersonal and societal levels. Social and behavioral scientists will be stimulated by the novel approach to theory and method in this work. It also has practical implications for the fields of psychotherapy, education, criminal justice, and international relations.

Thomas J. Scheff is professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is past president of the Pacific Sociological Association, and pat chair of the Sociology of Emotion section of the American Sociological Association. Dr. Scheff is currently conducting studies of male emotions and violence. Suzanne M. Retzinger, Ph.D, is a sociologist and an experienced professional mediator. She teaches at Antioch University and has a private practice in psychotherapy in Santa Barbara. She is the author of Violent Emotions and many articles and chapters.