Displaying emotional control by how crying and talking are managed

Abstract

In this study I investigated crying, as a display of emotional upset. The aim was to provide a detailed description of how turns of talk were organised around crying. Using conversation analysis, I examined a sample of 26 calls to a helpline for victims. Talking and crying regularly occurred together, with evidence of effort to keep talking and suppress crying. A loss of emotional control was displayed when talking was suspended by crying. However, even when flooded out by crying, the resumption of talk was routinely linked back to where it had been disrupted which suggests a normative orientation to not crying and to progressing talk. I use the findings to elaborate on the concept of being flooded out by emotion so being out of play for interaction (Goffman, 1961, 1974), in microanalytic terms. A conclusion considers the relationships between the sequential organisation of talking and crying and social-cultural norms about emotions.