Thomas Scheff is Professor Emeritus at UCSB. He is the author of Being Mentally Ill, Microsociology, Bloody Revenge, Emotions, the Social Bond and Human Reality, Goffman Unbound!(2006), and Easy Rider: Poems, Essays and Memoir (2007). He served as Chair of the Section on the Sociology of Emotions, American Sociological Association, and President of the Pacific Sociological Association. His fields of research are social psychology, emotions, masculinity, and collective conflict.

Email him at scheff@soc.ucsb.edu
.

Blog Entries by Thomas Scheff

Obsessions: Small and Monstrous

Posted October 20, 2009 | 04:24 PM (EST)


Young men and women often obsess about romantic partners, to the point of becoming infatuated. These infatuations may become painful, but often not. One imagines things, such as how one might meet for the first time.

Most people, however, myself included, also have painful obsessions, lasting for hours or days....

Read Post

Practical Therapy for Soldiers' Depression

Posted August 21, 2009 | 02:54 PM (EST)


In response to the Army's plan for mass therapy (NYT, A1, Aug. 17) my previous blog outlined the basic causes of depression: hiding emotions and no secure bonds. How can we confront these problems? My first suggestion is to have each soldier compile a list of the Best...

Read Post

Mass Therapy for Depressed Soldiers

10 Comments | Posted August 20, 2009 | 03:59 PM (EST)


Worried about the high rates of depression and suicide, the Army is planning therapy for its 1.1 million soldiers. For many years I have been developing an approach for teaching college students (and my own therapy as well) that may fit the Army's problem exactly. I propose two basic...

Read Post

Bleeding Heart Liberals Proven Right: Too Much Inequality Harms a Society

96 Comments | Posted June 18, 2009 | 06:23 PM (EST)


An important new book substantiates something progressives have long intuited. Published first in Britain and now headed for the United States, it's by epidemiologist Richard Wilkinson and health researcher Kate Pickett, and its title conveys its message: The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better.

Since...

Read Post