The Pursuit of Attention: Power and Ego in Everyday Life [Paperback]

Charles Derber (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195135490 | ISBN-13: 978-0195135497 | Publication Date: June 15, 2000 | Edition: 2

"Enough about me," goes the old saying, "what about you? What do you think about me?" Hence the pursuit of attention is alive and well. Even the Oxford English Dictionary reveals a modern coinage to reflect the chase in our technological age: "ego-surfing"--searching the Internet for occurrences of your own name. What is the cause of this obsessive need for others' recognition? This useful and popular volume, now in a second edition that features major new introductory and concluding essays, entertainingly ponders this question. Derber argues that there is a general lack of social support in today's America, one which causes people to vie hungrily for attention, and he shows how individuals will often employ numerous techniques to turn the course of a conversation towards themselves. Illustrating this "conversational narcissism" with sample dialogues that will seem disturbingly familiar to all readers, this book analyzes the pursuit of attention in conversation--as well as in politics and celebrity culture--and demonstrates the ultimate importance of gender, class, and racial differences in competing for attention. Derber shows how changes in the economy and culture--such as the advent of the Internet--have intensified the rampant individualism and egotism of today. And finally, in a new afterword, he focuses on solutions: how to restructure the economy and culture to humanize ourselves and increase the capacity for community, empathy, and attention-giving.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A refreshingly balanced, strongly grounded exploration of the routines Americans exploit in competing for attention...."--American Journal of Sociology (on the previous edition)

About the Author

Charles Derber, author of Corporation Nation and The Wilding of America, is Professor of Sociology at Boston College.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 2 edition (June 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195135490
• ISBN-13: 978-0195135497
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #211,571 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just a book, a treasure., March 2, 2001

By 

David Michmerhuizen (Fremont, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Pursuit of Attention: Power and Ego in Everyday Life (Paperback)

I usually sell or give away books once I've read them - there are always other books to read, and I don't fool myself that I'm going to revisit most of what I've already read. There are exceptions, but very few.

"The Pursuit of Attention" is not just an exception to this habit, it is for me, the premier exception. I first received this book as an unsolicited bonus from the bomc. I can honestly say that the insights it contains changed my life, almost revolutionized it.

You would expect to hear hype like that attached to some vapid self-help book. This is nothing of the sort - it reads much more like an extended scholarly paper. Not at all soft, not padded with a lot of empathy or pain-feeling, the book is pithy and somewhat short, and hits even harder because of that.

Attention, important enough to be the subject of the title, is presented as the underlying driving force in social interactions, and the books explaination of how the tactics and strategy of social interactions are affected by this 'pursuit of attention' will open your eyes to behavior all around you, including your own. In a way, this book is to Transactional Analysis what, in mathamatics, basic math is to algebra. Put back in the psychological realm, much of psychology is about the HOW of how people act, this book discusses the fundamentals of the WHY of how they act.

I treasure my copy. I strongly recommend you purchase your own.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Give this book some attention..., June 1, 2008

By 

ewomack "ewomack" (MN USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Pursuit of Attention: Power and Ego in Everyday Life (Paperback)

Many people see nothing egoistic about everyday conversation. We're nice and civilized people, after all, and we revel in shooting linguistically charged sound waves at each other. Some of us never stop talking, we love it so much. Certainly we're just making innocent and polite chatter? For example, one person in a group mentions their new puppy, everyone swoons, and another person responds "when my dog was a puppy I had the worst time keeping him out of the basement." Yet another person responds, "we'd like to get a puppy but our condo association doesn't allow them." The initial speaker then says "we named him 'Fred'" and someone else adds "I've always wanted a dog named Boethius, but my husband doesn't like that name." Was that exchange just a smattering of idle small talk? A mere chewing of the air? On the surface, yes, but the whiplash revelations of "The Pursuit of Attention" add a shocking dimension to what most of us consider quotidian jibber jabber.

Performing an archaeology of casual social interactions, this tiny book argues that most of us suffer from extreme attention deprivation. This burning psychological need manifests itself everywhere, in presidential halls, board rooms, dining rooms, and bars. The economy itself even seems to have adjusted to an attention-based reward system. Those with social standing, wealth, or hype automatically receive cascading swaths of attention. Celebrities can cause excitement by merely using the bathroom. But what about the rest of us? In an increasingly winner-take-all society that seems to eat at the foundations of traditional community support structures, many of us feel abandoned. We then seek attention, seen as a basic human need, wherever we can get it. Part I of "The Pursuit of Attention" analyzes ways people pursue this scarce resource (throughout, "attention" gets equated with money and nutrition). In a sampling of random conversations, the tendency of people to turn attention to themselves was overwhelming. The puppy conversation above exemplifies this behavior: someone brings up a topic and someone else, consciously or subconsciously, tries to insert a little bit of themselves into the fray. The focus then shifts to them along with a slice of attention. This may seem prosaic, but nearly everyone does it. Readers will suddenly catch themselves and others making "shift-responses" in conversation. Its pervasiveness will remain shocking and maybe life-altering.

The book also theorizes on how this situation arose historically. Admitting that humans have always pursued attention, the author sees a dissolution of community support since the rise of capitalist market systems, which emphasize an individualistic ethos. When insecurities in the home and work arise, people tend to become insular survivalists agonizing about their own problems and shirking the needs of others. The framework of the socio-economic system then trickles down into the psychological makeup of its participants. So, the book argues, here we are in a vastly inegalitarian society where some people obtain waves of attention while the majority of us feel ignored and insignificant. Those with resources and influence can even purchase attention via psychotherapy, personal attendants, or workplace settings. Those with few or no resources scour for significance in daily interactions. Thus the "conversational narcissism" discussed above. Though the author sees such behavior as a dangerous systemic breakdown of our culture, he also offers avenues of hope. Basically, things don't have to keep developing towards self-absorption. Realization is the first step.

This fascinating book originated in a 1979 paper exploring personal conversations, distribution of attention by class and wealth, and modern day abandonment. In 2000, a new preface and conclusion were added, written in a more vibrant and popular style than the original academic paper. All of this is sandwiched together in this second edition. And though some of the pop culture references have dated, the prescient themes will resonate with anyone living in our ever increasing individualistic society.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It made my top 5 list for non-fiction, July 1, 2004

By 

Robert Petty (Ft Meade, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Pursuit of Attention: Power and Ego in Everyday Life (Paperback)

Quick and to the point it wastes not a word yet reads well. Accurate observations about american society's need for attention with special emphasis on the roles of class and gender. It points out problems and possible answers.
It is excellent.