Introduction

Nussbaum continues to develop her neo-Stoic theory of the emotions by arguing that individual history and social norms shape a person's emotional life. In South Africa, with its rich cultural and complex historical past, this aspect of her theory is of particular significance and is explored in Part 2 of this book. Furthermore, schools form part of the facilitating environment, and in this regard, her theory proves to be of great value. This is discussed in Part 3.

Grief and social norms

She proceeds by describing three individual emotional responses to the death of loved ones. The bereaved in these cases come from different social backgrounds. The Ifaluk people, for instance, believe that those who do not ‘cry big’ at a death will become ill afterwards. Subsequently, the sounds of men and women crying and moaning vehemently are heard for a considerable time. In direct contrast to this expressive response to death, the Balinese people believe that sad feelings are a hazard to one's health. They thus cheerfully distract themselves by focusing on happy events. Reflecting on her own grief, she realises that it was affected not only by the attachment to her mother, but also by social norms, such as the ‘appropriate way’ to mourn the loss of a parent. This caused an inner conflict. At times she felt guilty when she neglected her work because she was grieving, but she also felt guilty towards her mother when she attended to her work and did not grieve. These experiences led her to address another issue in her developing theory, namely, to determine the extent to which emotional repertoires vary, as well as the degree to which these variations are the result of societal, rather than individual differences. Up till now the focus was on the universal aspects of some human emotions, such as the fundamental vulnerabilities and attachments that everyone has, as well as the common biological basis of human beings. However, this does not imply that emotions are shaped in a similar way by diverse societies, and in this regard, language should also be considered. Although linguistic expression is common to all, languages of different societies vary. These variations are not only in the structure and semantics of the different languages, but also in their expressive scope.