The sociology of emotions starts from the observation that all social life requires appropriate emotions depending on the situation. It is appropriate to experience, for example, joy at the birth of a baby, disappointment in the event of failure in a competition, sadness at the estrangement of a loved one… As long as the feelings experienced correspond to this which is expected, these rules are not felt. Informal, implicit and unnamed, they are “self-evident” (Garfinkel, 1967). But, as Durkheim already taught us, it is when “our ways of acting, thinking or feeling” differ from what the social dictates to us that we then feel, under the effect of sanctions, their constraining character. A certain discomfort seizes us when our emotions contravene what the situation demands. Emotions are active, including learning social rules in general and emotional rules in particular. Embarrassment, embarrassment, shame, guilt, are typical emotions whose function is to maintain social order. Goffman (1974; 2013 [1963]) had clearly shown this with regard to the role of embarrassment and « face » to save, and more centrally Scheff (1988) concerning the role of shame in conforming to social rules. These emotions can be felt in one’s heart, out of sight, or strongly aroused by those around them, who share this discomfort or who are more active in inflicting a feeling of discomfort. THE « Tu should be ashamed! », inflicted on the child with the deviant behavior, testifies to the inculcation of these socializing emotions. In a more subtle and insidious way, shame also comes from the simple fact of not feeling what the situation would require us to feel. Because there must be shame and embarrassment not to form a community, in particular and precisely by the fact of feeling the same emotion at certain times identified as requiring the participation of all. It will be noted that this joins the analyzes of Durkheim and Mauss on the obligatory nature of feelings, but goes further, thanks to a lighting that is both comprehensive and interactionist, and in particular by highlighting the key role of certain emotions in the very internalization of emotional norms.
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