The presentation of self in everyday life
by Erving Goffman · first published 1952
67% recommend33% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Classic sociology text using a theatrical metaphor to explain how people manage impressions in daily interactions; recommended as a foundational read for understanding social behavior and everyday roles.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
A notable contribution to our understanding of ourselves. This book explores the realm of human behavior in social situations and the way that we appear to others. Dr. Goffman uses the metaphor of theatrical performance as a framework. Each person in everyday social intercourse presents himself and his activity to others, attempts to guide and control the impressions they form of him, and employs certain techniques in order to sustain his performance, just as an actor presents a character to an audience. The discussions of these social techniques offered here are based upon detailed research a
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…reading books incredibly slowly, and it's like I've entered a secret world. Some examples, for the curious: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Kuhn The Varieties of Religious Experience, James The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Goffman Human Action, Mises
on “Books That Changed How I Hear Music” ↗"Science and Sanity" — Alfred Korzybski (1933) http://pialogue.info/books/Science-and-Sanity-Korzybski.pdf "The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life" — Erving Goffman (1956) https://monoskop.org/images/1/19/Goffman_Erving_The_Presenta...
on “Ask HN: Older textbooks/papers you consider classics still worth studying today?” ↗…anecdote in the footnotes alone. Richard Sennett The Fall of Public Man is a history of public spaces, living in cities, public politics, political charisma etc, since Paris in the 19th C. Erving Goffman Presentation of Self in Everyday Life looks at (All these books are very hard to summarise!!) the stages, backstages, performances of life, actual stages, shops, hotels, ranks in organisations, these little worlds with rules and customs,…
on “Ask HN: What are some deep, mentality changing books?” ↗…us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betray's In deepest consequence. -William Shakespeare, Macbeth Act I, Scene iii For something deeper, there is the classic Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life with a good summary at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Presentation_of_Self_in_Eve... The main point is that some people in how they present themselves to others, "in everyday life", put on an act…
on “Mean People Fail” ↗Metaphors We Live By - Lakoff/Johnson Philosophy in the Flesh - L/J Rationalism in Politics - Oakeshott Erving Goffman – Presentation of Self in Everyday Life Walter Lippmann – Public Opinion Art as Experience - John Dewey Plutarch's Lives G.K. Chesterton – Heretics (essay) William James - On A Certain Blindness in Human Beings (and its sequel) (essay)…
on “Ask HN: Books on specific topics that have applied to many areas of your life?” ↗Some random things that come to mind: game theory, Nietzsche, Goffman's Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Chomsky's political works, GK Chesterton (e.g. Heretics), Freakonomics, Cialdini's Influence, JR Saul (e.g. Voltaire's Bastards, The Doubter's Companion), Bertrand Russell (e.g. Unpopular Essays, Sceptical…
on “Ask HN: Favorite “Adam Ruins Everything”-esque media? (blogs, podcasts, etc)” ↗The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life — Erving Goffman (1956) You will recognize yourself and things you do, brought into high relief and as such revelatory. https://www.amazon.com/Presentation-Self-Everyday-Life/dp/03...
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?” ↗"The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life" — Erving Goffman (1959). Timeless. https://www.amazon.com/Presentation-Self-Everyday-Life/dp/03...
on “Ask HN: What are the best unknown books you have read?” ↗…books to read. One is recent, the other is a foundational classic of social psychology: - Zeynep Tufekci, Twitter and Tear Gas, The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest (2017). - Erwin Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1956) Goffman uses a theatrical metaphor to talk about how our behavior and social life is affected by our perceptions of who the audience is for our actions. Zeynep writes about how the magnifying…
on “Ask HN: Which books do you consider real gems in your field of work/study?” ↗Good question. It's been over twenty years at this point, and we skimmed a lot of texts in the classes I took. The one that actually stuck with me was Erving Goffman's "The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life", but I don't know how much that would still resonate. Emile Durkeim's "Suicide" is famous in sociology because it helped kick off the entire field of study. It was, I think, one of the first works to…
on “AI Makes Me Sad” ↗Also The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Presentation_of_Self_in_E...
on “_why is a role, not a person” ↗I think that generalizes to all human interactions. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life [1] is the canonical work on this topic. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Presentation_of_Self_in_Ev...
on “It’s Not the Chemicals, It’s the Cages” ↗…anything specific but it is related to the intentional fallacy and thinking along the lines of The Death of the Author as well as more anthro/socio stuff by people like Erving Goffman. I'm thinking of his Presentation of Self in Everyday Life where he talks about things in terms of acting and live theater.
on ““Let her speak please”” ↗The article starts by mentioning Erving Goffman’s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1956) and Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities (1983). I wonder if texts like this are really "undead" in the way that the author implies. My phd minor was anthropology. I'm pretty familiar with…
on “The Books That Wouldn’t Die” ↗…mental energy to negotiate all the daily events and situations while keeping the act totally believable while actually it is totally false. There's more on such things in the now famous E. Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Sorry, PG, there's a fundamental problem here: As in some recent research (wish I'd kept the reference), already in the crib, the girls are thinking about people and the boys, things. While the boy…
on “The Ronco Principle” ↗