This study explores the normative role of emotional rhetoric and the social passions (with an emphasis on compassion) in politics through a consideration of the divergent perspectives of Rousseau and Nietzsche. These two invite comparison not only because of the wide range of ideas they represent, but also because each employed rare rhetorical skill to effect extensive cultural change. To analyze this dynamic relationship between theory and practice, I focus on how each philosopher sought to transform the sentimental basis of social and political life. I argue that Rousseau, through his intentional use of sentimental rhetoric, inspired cultural romanticism and the equity of the political left, and that Nietzsche, through his extreme attack on ordinary compassion, and his invocation of tragic pity and the “pathos of distance,” hoped to prevent nihilism from taking root in the modern spirit by bringing about an age of renewed cultural depth and robust individualism. My study is unique in its investigation of the autobiographical rhetoric of the two philosophers. I argue that both Rousseau and Nietzsche wrote autobiographies that exemplify their respective philosophical teachings on the sentiments, which is to say that in the autobiographical works they employ personal rhetoric aimed at illuminating and reinforcing these teachings. Rousseau’s pathos-filled self-presentation serves his vision for a withdrawn cultural elite that, while tolerated and quietly influential, does not enjoy public honors; Nietzsche, I suggest, worries that the cost of privatizing great individual virtue will be too high; his bombastic self-portrait not only satirizes faux Rousseauian vulnerability, but also serves personally to exemplify the possibility of a new cultural super-authority. In both cases, I suggest, a fundamental consistency exists between their theoretical teachings and their self-presentations, such that their autobiographical works should be understood as integrated parts of their greater philosophic projects. / text

This dissertation examines (1) whether there are differences in how sympathy is expressed in situations of differing gravity by native speakers (NSs) of Spanish and English, as well as intermediate second language (L2) learners of Spanish; and (2) Spanish NSs' thoughts regarding learners' nonstandard reactions to these situations. The data collection involved an informal conversation eliciting sympathy and a retrospective interview. Sympathy is examined not only as an emotion but also as a means to achieve social or conversational goals. Hence, the analysis involves both linguistic and sociological theories. Using aspects of Speech Act Theory (Austin, 1962; Searle, 1969), Conversation Analysis (Schegloff & Jefferson, 1974) and Politeness Theory (Brown & Levinson, 1987), and following Clark's (1997) ideas on the process of giving sympathy, it was found that when reacting to an interlocutor's hardships, speakers may experience genuine overt sympathy, covert sympathy or surface sympathy, which are influenced by social and politeness factors, personality differences and conversational structure. Results also indicate that differences exist in how sympathy is expressed by NSs of English and Spanish, particularly for low gravity situations. For high gravity situations, speakers of both languages tended to rely more on the use of formulaic expressions. Also, learners were often unable to react due to linguistic limitations. Some learners transferred pragmatic knowledge from their L1 to their L2, while others had acquired sufficient L2 pragmatic information to react appropriately. Finally, it was seen that NSs are more lenient regarding pragmatic errors committed by non-NSs of the language, but many consider that failing to express compassion in certain contexts could negatively impact the communication or relationship between interlocutors. The findings suggest that learning to express emotion such as compassion is an important part of achieving L2 communicative competence and, since cultural and pragmatic differences exist among languages, learners should be exposed to real-life, communicative situations in order to acquire such emotive skills. This dissertation contributes to the fields of second language acquisition and pragmatics by combining cognitive, affective and social factors to show how they interact with language production and comprehension. / text

This exploratory study examines the lived experience of Green Cross traumatologists deployed to the New York City World Trade Center disaster. The deployment took place five days after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The author was a member of a ten member advance team that provided crisis stabilization services to an international union in Lower Manhattan. Disaster Mental Health Services and community outreach were provided for a month. The purpose of the study was to describe in an anthropologically holistic perspective the lived experience of traumatologists, who as Americans were also affected by the terrorist disaster. Thirty-one traumatologists participated in the study. Ethnographic methods included participant observation and informal interviews during the first week of the deployment. In-depth interviews were conducted after deployment and ranged from one to three hours in length. Interviews were audio taped, transcribed and analyzed with the assistance of N-vivo software. The author's story is among the narratives. Narratives of lived experience reflect the continuity of life and give meaning to experience within a cultural context. Findings reveal the shared meaning attributed to lived experience in a disaster environment, cultural continuity and change and impact of disaster deployment on the health and safety of the helper. Recommendations for future research, policy and training are offered.

Due to the subjective nature of pain and the profound debilitating effects of pain for a growing number of people, there are many challenges to approaching and fully addressing its problems. The traditional biomedical model of health limits its treatment focus to the physical components of pain. Biomedicine provides useful and effective short-term relief of bodily symptoms, but usually cannot cure pain that persists in both mind and body over time. Because chronic pain is often accompanied with discomfort, depression, and other significant life impairments, health researchers have recently conceptualized more comprehensive models to address pain. In the bio-psycho-social-spiritual health model, chronic pain is assessed and treated in the context of a person’s overall quality of life, considering biological, psychological, social, and spiritual health conditions. This movement towards adopting integrative health care models can also provide patient guidance needed for developing inner resources to adapt to pain, as well as recover from and prevent disease. Self-compassion comes from a fertile field of inquiry emerging out of a wider conception of health that includes spirituality. The construct is based on three related components that can assist a person living with pain: (a) being kind to oneself while in pain or suffering, (b) perceiving difficult times as shared human experiences, and (c) holding painful thoughts and feelings with mindfulness, instead of over-identification. Measured using the Self-Compassion Scale, it demonstrates positive associations with a variety of health indicators. However, a direct relationship with chronic pain has not yet been examined. In applying recent research in quality of life (QoL) and self-compassion to a chronic pain patient population, the purpose of this study is twofold: (a) to produce a comprehensive assessment of bio-psycho-social-spiritual QoL conditions (b) to examine differences in QoL with the presence of self-compassion and determine its potential moderating effect on life impairments due to pain. From this project, the QoL conditions that are affected by chronic pain and the moderation effect of self-compassion will be understood better so that more effective treatment and prevention procedures can be developed for people living with pain from long-term disease conditions. / text

This dissertation examines the role of affect and emotion in contemporary citizenship practices along the US-Mexico border. Drawing from mixed qualitative methods, this dissertation employs inter-subjective research practice to understand the entanglement between the state, objects, citizen, and non-citizen along the border. This study presents two interrelated findings: 1) state security objects "impress" and mediate citizen movements, and 2) a dual masculinity of offensive and defensive emerges around compassionate actions toward or distancing actions from migrants in need of aid or assistance. Drawing on Slavoj Žižek, this dissertation explores the border-as-parallax-object to reveal the ways that the border is inscribed beyond the material fence. In this way, this dissertation connects disparate literature within human geography concerning materiality and psychoanalytic theory. By psychoanalytically reading and coding research interviews, this dissertation also develops the concepts of the face-of-the-state and ambivalent citizenship to elucidate the impact of security objects on citizen practices. The findings build toward a new subfield in political geography: emotional border studies.

Self-compassion, typically operationalized as the total score of the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS; Neff, 2003b), has been shown to be related to increased psychological well-being and lower depression in students of the social sciences, users of psychology websites and psychotherapy patients. The current study builds on the existing literature by examining the link between self-compassion and depressive symptomatology in a sample representative of the German general population (n = 2,404). The SCS subscales of self-judgment, isolation, and over-identification, and the “self-coldness”, composite score, which encompass these three negative subscales, consistently differed between subsamples of individuals without any depressive symptoms, with any depressive syndromes, and with major depressive disorder. The contribution of the positive SCS subscales of self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness to the variance in depressive symptomatology was almost negligible. However, when combined to a “self-compassion composite”, the positive SCS subscales significantly moderated the relationship between “self-coldness” and depressive symptoms in the general population. This speaks for self-compassion having the potential to buffer self-coldness related to depression—providing an argument for interventions that foster self-caring, kind, and forgiving attitudes towards oneself.

Searching for meaning within the real life experiences of frontline social workers working with clients involved in the illegal drug trade. There is a strong likelihood that during the course of a career a front line social worker will have the opportunity to work with a client who is or has been involved in the illegal drug trade. As there is essentially no existing research literature about social workers who work with clients involved in the illegal drug trade, one of the purposes of this research was to explore this experience from the perspective of front line social workers and bridge the gap in this research area. This qualitative interpretative analysis provided the opportunity to gain insight into and put meaning to the experiences and perceptions of the 11 frontline social workers as they work with clients involved in the illegal drug trade. This research also provides valuable information and implications for practice and for further research.

The political and economically based social system of neoliberalism fosters an individualistic perspective that informs people’s actions when confronted by a stranger in crisis. When a stranger is witnessed in crisis, the witness follows the lead of the neoliberal individualistic social structures that deny the plight of those in crisis. The stranger is feared and left to fend for herself in her plight. The creation of spectacles and imaginary notions of ‘stranger danger’ as combined with individuals having blasé attitudes reinforce an individualistic perspective. The mass media help in circulating an archive of images in which the stranger is dangerous, different and to be feared. Because these images are so available, and have become expected, compassion fatigue is set in motion when people are confronted with images of strangers in crisis; compassion fatigue is reinforced by the surrounding individualistic social structures.

The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of former teen talking circle participant’s experience with the practice of compassionate listening in talking circles and to explore compassionate listening as a form of spiritual activism. This study explored the use and effect of compassionate listening within the facilitator training materials developed and used by the organization Teen Talking Circles as well as the use and experience of compassionate listening within the teen talking circles. For the purpose of this study, I interviewed seven former female teen talking circle participants. Open ended semi-structured interviews were the means of data collection. Data were analyzed thematically and after reviewing the transcripts from all seven interviews, the five strongest themes to come out of the interviews were: increased communication skills, increased awareness, less judgment of self and others, deeper relationships and an increased sense of empathy.

The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of former teen talking circle participant’s experience with the practice of compassionate listening in talking circles and to explore compassionate listening as a form of spiritual activism. This study explored the use and effect of compassionate listening within the facilitator training materials developed and used by the organization Teen Talking Circles as well as the use and experience of compassionate listening within the teen talking circles. For the purpose of this study, I interviewed seven former female teen talking circle participants. Open ended semi-structured interviews were the means of data collection. Data were analyzed thematically and after reviewing the transcripts from all seven interviews, the five strongest themes to come out of the interviews were: increased communication skills, increased awareness, less judgment of self and others, deeper relationships and an increased sense of empathy.