Erving Goffman - The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life - Communication Out of Character

8/12/2019 Erving Goffman - The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life - Communication Out of Character

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C I I A P T K R V

COMMUNICATION OUT OF CHARACTER

When two team s pre sen t them selve s to each othe r for

purposes of in te ract ion , the members of each team tern! to(Maintain the line that they are what they claim to be; they

tend to s tay in char acter . Ba cks tag e famil iari ty is sup press ed

les t the in terplay of po ses co l lap se and a ll the par t ic ipants

find th em se lve s on the sam e team, as it were, with no one

left to pla y to. Eac h par ticip an t in the inter act ion ordinarily

endeavours to know and keep his place, maintaining whatever

balance of formality and informality has been es tab l i sh ed for

the interact ion , even to the point of extending th is t reatmentto his own teamm ates. At the sam e time, each team ten ds to

sup press i t s candid view of i t se l f and of the other team,

pro jec ting a conception of s e l f and a conception of other that

is relat ive ly ac ce pta ble to th e other. And to ensure tha t

communication wil l fol low established, narrow channels , each

team is prepared to assis t the other team, taci t ly and tactful ly,

in maintaining the imp ressio n it is attemp ting to foster. Ofcour se, at moments of great cr isi s, a new se t of motives may

suddenly become effec t ive and the es tabl ished socia l d is tance

between the team s may sharply inc rease or d ec rease , i but

when the cris is is past , the previous working consensus is

l ikely to be reestablished, albei t bashfully.

Underneath and behind this working consensus, and the

gentle man s agreem ent not to disrupt the interac tion upon

which this l imited con se nsu s is based, there are, typical ly,le ss app aren t cur rents of communication. If the se curre nts

were not undercurr ents, if the se co nce ptio ns were officially

communicated instead of communicated in a surrepti t ious

way, they would cont radic t and dis cre di t the defin itio ns of

the situ atio n officia lly projected by the par ticip ant s. When

'A n exam ple is found in a rec ent study of a ho spit al ward on whichexperim ental treatment was given to volunte ers sufferin g from metab olic

disorders about which li t t le was known and for which li t t le could be done.In face of the r ese ar ch dem ands made upon the pat ien ts and the generalleel ing of hopelessness about prognosis , the usual sharp l ine betweendoctor and pati ent was blunted. Doctors resp ectf ully cons ulted withtliuit pa tie nt s a t length about symptoms, and pa tie nts came to think ofthemse lves in par t as research ass oc ia t es . See Kenee Clai re Fox, MSociological Study of Stre ss : Ph ys ici an and Pa ti e nt on a R ese arc h Ward,Unpublished Ph. L). dis se rta tio n, Department of Social Re latio ns, KadcliffCol lege, 1953 .

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we s tudy a social es tabl i shment , these d iscrepant sent iments

are almost alwa ys found. They demonstrate that while a

performer may ac t a s i f h i s r esponse in a s i tua tion were

immediate, unthinking, and spontaneous, and while he himself

may think this to be the case, st i l l i t wil l always be possible

for si tu at io n s to a ri se in which he will con vey to one or twopersons p re se n t the unders tanding that the show he i s maintain-

ing is only and merely a show. The pre sen ce, then, of

communication out of character provides one argument for the

propriety of s tudying performances in term s of team s and in

terms of potent ial interact ion disrupt ions. I t may be rep eate d

tha t no claim is made tha t surrep t i t ious comm unicat ions are

any more a reflection of the real reality than are the official

comm unications with which they are in c on si st en t; the point

is that the performer is typica lly involved in both, and this

dual involvemen t must be carefully managed le s t official

p ro jec tions be d isc red i ted . Of the many typ e s of communication

in which the performer engages and which convey information

incompatible with the impression official ly maintained during

interact ion, four typ es will be co ns ider ed : t reatment of the

absent , s tagin g talk, team col lusio n, and temporary re-al ignments.

Treatment of the Absent

When the members of a team go backstage where the

audience cannot see or hear them, they very regular ly derogate

the audience in a way that is inconsistent with the (acetoface

treatment tha t is given to the audience. In serv ice t rades,for example, customers who are treated respectfully during

the performance are often ridiculed, gossiped about, caricatured,

cursed, and cr i t icized when the performers are backstage;

here , too, pla ns may be worked out for ' s e l l i n g them, or

employ ing ' a n g le s aga ins t them, o r pac ify ing th e m .1

Similarly, there are very few friendship relationships in which

there is not some occasion when at t i tudes expressed about

the friend behind his back are grossly incompatible with the

on es expr es sed about him to his face.

Sometimes, of cou rse, the opposite of derogation occurs,

and performers praise their audience in a way that would be

impe rmiss ible for them to do in the ac tua l pr es en ce of the

au dien ce . Bu t se c re t dero gation se em s to be much more common

than sec ret praise , perhaps b ecause such derogat ion serves

1See, for example, the cas e report on 'C en tra l H aber das hery ' in RobertDubin, ed., Unman Relations in Adminis trat ion (New York: Prent iecMall ,1951) pp. 560*563.

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to maintain the s olid ari ty of the team, dem onstrating mutual

regard at th e ex pe nse of tho se abse nt and comp ensat ing,

perhaps, for the l o s s of se lf re spec t that may occur when the

audience must be accorded accommodat ive faceioface

treatment.

Two common tec hn iqu es of derogating the abse nt audienc emay be su gg es ted . F irs t, we often find that when performers

are in the region in which they will appear before the audience,

and when the audience has left or not yet arrived, the performers

will sometimes play out a satire on their interaction with the

audience, and with some members of the team taking the role

of the audience. F ran ce s Donovan, for example, in des cribing

the sou rce s of fun avai lable to salesg i r l s , sug ge sts the

fol lowing:

Dot u nl es s they are busy the gir ls do noc remain long apart . Anirr es ist ib le at tract ion draws them toget her a^ain . At every opportunitythey play the game of customer,* a game which they have invented andof w hich they never see m to tit ea game which for car icat ure andcomedy, 1 have nevet see n surp asse d on any s tage . One girl take s the

par t of the sa lesw om an, another that o f the customer in sea rch of adr ess , and together they put on an act t hat would delight the heart of avaudevil le audience. 1

A similar si tua tion is des crib ed by Dennis Kinc aid in his

discussion of the kind of social contact that nat ives arranged

for the B ritish during the ea rly part of Briti sh rule in In dia :

If the young factors found l i t t le pleas ure at thes e entertainments ,thei t hosts for all the sat isf act io n they would at other times havederiv ed from Raji 's grace and Ka lian i 's wit, were too unea sy to enjoytheir own party till the gu es ts had gone. Th en followed an entertainmentof which few Eng lish g ue sts were aware. Th e doors would be shut,and the dancing girls , excellent mimics l ike al l Indians, would givean imitation of the bored guests who had just left, and the uncomfortabletension of the last hour would be dispelled in bursts of happy laughter.

And while the English phaetons clattered home Raji and kaliani wouldbe d resse d up to car ica ture E nglish costume ana be executing withindecent exaggerat ion an Oriental ized vers ion of English dances, thoseminuets and country dan ce s which seemed so innocent and natural toEnglish eyes, so different from the provocative posturing of Indiannautchgirls , but which to Indians appeared utterly scandalous. 2

Among other things, this activity seems to provide a kind of

r itual profanat ion of the front region a s wel l a s of the

audience, 3

Secondly, we qui te regular ly f ind that a co ns iste ntdifference app ears between terms of reference and terms of

1 Frances Donovan, The Sales lady (Chicago: Univers i ty of Chicago Press ,1929), p. 39. Sp eci fic ex am ple s are gi ven on pp. 3940.

2Dennis Kincaid, B ri t ish Soc ia l L i fe in India , 1608-1937 (London: Routledge,1938), pp. 106107.

3A re la ted tend ency may be mentioned . In many of fic es chat are dividedinto ranked reg ions, the lun chtime break will find the topmost levelleaving the so cia l es tablish me nt and everyone el se in i t moving up a

region for lunch or for a few momen ts of af te rl u n ch tal k. Momentaryp o sse s s io n of the workplace of one 's superord inates seem s to offer,among other things, an opportunity to profanizeit in some ways.

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addre ss. In the pr ese nc e of the audien ce, the performers tend

to us e a favourable form of ad dr es s to them. T his involves,

in American soc iet y, a poli t ely formal term, suc h a s ' s i r or

'Mr or a warmly famil iar term, suc h a s f i rst name or nick-

name, the formality or informality be ing determined by the

wishes of the person addressed. In the abse nc e of the audience,the audience tends to be referred to by bare surname, first

name where this is not permissible to their faces, nickname,

or slig htin g pronun ciatio n of full name. Sometimes members

of the audience are referred to not even by a sl ighting name

hut by a code t i t le which assimilates them fully to an abstract

categ ory. Th us doc tors in the ab se nc e of a patie nt may refer

to h im as the cardiac or ' the s t rep; barbers pr ivately refer

to their cus tom ers as 'h e a d s of hai r . So, too, the audien ce

may be referred to in their absence by a collective term combin-

ing dist an ce and derogation, su gg es ting an ingroupoutgroup

spl i t. Th us m usician s will cal l cus tom ers sq ua res ; nat ive

American office girls may secretly refer to their foreign

c o ll ea g u es a s ' G . R .s ; 1 A merican so l d ie r s may s ec re tl y

refer to Engl ish sold iers with whom they work a s 'L im e y s ; 2

pitchmen in ca rn iva ls p resen t their sp ie l before persons whomthey refer to in pr ivate, as rubes, nat ives, or towners; and

Jews act out the rout ines of the parent society for an audience

which is cal led the goyim. Perh aps the cru eles t term of a ll

is found in si t u at io n s where an individual as k s to be calle d

by a familiar term to h is face, and th is i s tolerantly done, but

in his a bs en c e he is referred to by a formal term. Th us on

th e is lan d studie d by the writer any visi to r who ask ed the

local cro fters to call him by his first name was som etime s

obl ige d to his fac e, but in the a bs en ce of the vis ito r a formal

term of reference would push him back into what was felt to

be h is proper p lace .

1 have sugg este d two standard ways in which performers

derog ate th ei r au d ie nc e smock ro leplaying and uncomplimentary

terms of reference. Ther e are other standard ways. For

example, when no member of the audience is present, theGerman R efu ge es . Se e Gross , op. cil ., p. 186.

2Sce Daniel Glaser, 'A Study of Relations between British and Americanhnlisced Men at SMA HF, ' Unpublished Master 's the sis , Department ofSociology, Univ ersity of Chica go, 1947. Mr Glas er sa ys , p. 16:

T h e term ' l im ey , as used by the Americans in place of 'B ri t i sh ,was gene rally employed with derogatory imp licati ons. They would refrainfrom usin g it in the pr esen ce of the British though the la tter usuallycither didnt know what it meant or didnt give it a derogatory significance.Indeed, the Ame ricans car e in this re sp ec t w as rnuch like tha t of Northern

wh iles who use t he term 'n igg er* but refrai n from usin g it in front of aNegro. T h is nickname phenomenon i s , of course, a common feature ofethnic relat ions in which categoric contacts prevail . '

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members of the team may refer to a s p e c ts of their routine in a

cynical or purely technical way, giving forceful evidence to

themselves that they do not take the same view of their activity

as the view they maintain for the ir aud ienc e. A further stand ard

derog ation may be cit ed . When team ma tes are warned that

the audience is approaching, the teammates may hold offtheir performance, purposely, until the very last minute, until

the audience a lmost ca tches a gl impse of backs tage ac t iv i ty .

Similarly, the team may race into backstage relaxation the

moment the aud ien ce has departed. By means of this purposely

rapid sw itch into or out of their act, the team in a s e n s e can

contaminate and profanize the audience by back s tage conduct,

or rebel against the obligat ion of maintaining a show before

the audience, or make extremely clear the difference between

team and audience, and do all of these things without quite

being caught out by the audience. Still another s tandard

agg ress io n ag ains t those abs ent occu rs in the kidding and

ribbing a member of the team receives when he is about to

leave (or merely d es ire s to leave) his teammates and ri se or

fall or move late rall y into the ranks of the au die nc e. At such

times the teammate who is ready to move can be treated asif he has already moved, and abuse or familiarity can be heaped

upon him with impunity, and, by implication, upon the audience.

And a final instance of aggression is found when someone

from th e au di en ce is of ficiall y brought into the team. Again,

he may be jokingly mistreated and 'given a hard time, for

much the sam e reason that he was abuse d when he departed

from the team he has just left. 1

The techniques of derogation which have been consideredpoint out the fac t tha t, verbally, ind ividuals are trea ted

relatively well to their faces and relatively badly behind their

backs. T h is seem s to be one of the basic genera l iza t ions

that can be made about interaction, but we should not seek in

our alltoohuman nature an expl anatio n of i t. As previously

sugg ested, back stage derogation of the audience se rve s to

maintain th e morale of the team. And when the au di en ce is

p resen t , co ns id era te treatment of them is n ecessa ry , not for

their sake, or for their sake merely, but so that continuance

of peaceful and orderly inter act ion will be assu red . Th e

a c tu a l (eeling s of the performers for a member of the aud ien ce

(.whether positive or negative) seem to have lit t le to do with

rhe question , either a s a determinant of how this member of

the aud ienc e is trea ted to his face or as a determinant of how

1 Cf. Kenneth Burke, A Rhetoric o f Motives, p. 234 ff., who gives a socialanalysis of the individual being ini t iated, using as a key word 'hazing. '

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he is treate d behind his back. I t may be true that ba ck sta ge

activity often takes the form of a council of war; but when

two teams meet on che field of interaction it seems chat they

gen era lly do not meet for pe ac e or for war. The y meet under

a temporary truce, a working co ns en su s, in order to get the ir

bu s in e ss done.

Staging Talk

When team ma tes are out of the pres en ce of the audienc e,

dis cu ssio n often turns to problems of staging. Q ues t ion s

are raised about the condi t ion of s ign equipment; s tands, l ines,

and posi t ions are tentat ively brought for th and 'cleared ' by

the assembled membership; the meri ts and demeri ts of avai lable

f ront regions are analyzed; the s ize and character of poss ib le

au die nc es for the performance are c on side red ; pa st performance

disrupt ion s and likely disrupt ions are talked abou t ; news about

the team s of ones co l lea gu s is t ransm it ted; the recept ion

given ones last performance is mulled over in what are some

t imes cal led ' p o s t m ortem s; wounds are l icked and morale

is strengthened for the next performance.Staging talk, when cal led by other names such as gossip,

's h o p talk, etc . , i s a wel lworn not ion. I have st re ss ed it

here because i t helps point up the fact that individuals with

widely different social roles l ive in the same climate of drama-

turgical expe rienc e. The talk s that comedians and sc ho lars

give are quite different, but their talk about their work is quite

similar. To a surp rising degree, before the talk, talk ers talk

to thei r friend s a bout what will and will not hold the au die nc e,what will and will not give off en ce ; afte r the talk , all tal ke rs

talk to their friends about the kind of hall they spoke in, the

kind of audience they drew, and the kind of reception they

obta ined. Stagin g talk ha s alrea dy been referred to in the

discuss ion of backstage act iv i ty and col legial so l idar i ty and

will not be further discussed here.

Team Collusion

When a part icipant conveys something during interaction,

we ex pe ct him to com munic ate only through the lip s of the

character he has chosen to project , openly addressing al l of

his remarks to the whole interact ion so that al l persons present

are given equal s ta tu s as rec ipien ts of communicat ion. Thu s

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whispering, for example, is often co nsid ered improper and is

prohibited, for it can destroy the im pression tha t the performer

is only what he ap pea rs to be and that things are as he ha s

cla im ed them to .be. 1

In spite of the expectation that everything said by the

performer will be in keeping with the definition of the si tua tionfostered by him, he may convey a great deal daring an inter-

actio n chat is out of ch ar ac ter and convey i t in such a way as

to prevent the au dien ce a s a whole from realizi ng that anything

out of keeping with the definit ion of the si tuation has been

conveyed. P er so ns who are admitted to this sec ret commun-

icat ion are placed in a co l lusiv e relat ion ship to one another

visavis the remainder of the part icipan ts. By acknowledging

to one another that they are keeping relevant secrets f rom the

others present, they acknowledge to one another that the show

of candour they maintain, and the show of being only the

cha rac ters they off icial ly project , i s merely a show. By means

of such byplay, performers can affirm a ba ck sta ge soli dar i ty

even while engaged in a performance, expressing with impunity

unacceptable th ings about the audience as wel l as th ings about

them selve s that the audie nce would f ind unac cepta ble. I shal lcal l ' tea m c o l lu si o n any col lus ive communicat ion which is

car efully conveyed in such a way as to ca us e no threat to

the i llusion that is being fostered for the audience.

One important kind of team collusion is found in the system

of secret s ignals through which performers can surrept i t iously

rece ive or t ransmit per t inent information, req ue sts for a s s is t-

ance, and other mat ters of a kind relevant to the suc ce ssf ul

p resentat ion of a performance. Typically , th e s e s tag ing cue scome from, or to, the director of the performance, and it greatly

simplif ies his task of managing impressions to have such a

subterranean language avai lab le. Staging cu es of ten rela te

those engaged in presenting a performance to those who are

offer ing as si st a n c e or direct ion bac ksta ge. Thu s, by means

of a footbuzzer , a ho ste ss can give direct ion s to her ki tchen

sta ff while act ing a s If she is ful ly involved in the mealt ime

con ve rsa tion . Similarly, during radio and tel evi sion production s

a vocabulary of signs is employed by those in the control room

l fn recreatio nal games, whispered hudd les may be defined as acce ptab le,as they may before audiences such as children or foreigners to whomlit t le conside rat ion need be given. In soc ial arrangements in which knotsor clu ste rs of per sons hold separate conv ersat io ns in each other s vis ible

p resen ce , an effort i s often made by the p ar t ic ipan ts in each c lus te r toact as if what they are saying could be sa id in the other cl u ste rs eveithough it is not.

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to guide performers, especially as regards their t iming, without

allowing the aud ien ce to become awa re that a system of control

communication is in operation in addit ion to the communication

in which performers and aud ien ce are off icial ly part icipat ing.

So also, in business off ices, execut ives who want to terminate

inte rvie w s both rapidly and tactfully will train the ir se cr et ar ie sto interrupt interviews at the proper t ime with the proper excuse.

Another example may be taken from the kind of social establish-

ment in Americ a in which sh o es ar e commonly sold. Sometimes

a customer who wants a shoe of larger size than the one that

i s avai lable or the one that f i t s may be handled as fo l lows:

To impress the cus tomer as to the e ffec t iveness of h is s t re tchingth e shoe, the sa les m an may tel l the custom er chat he is going to strc tch

the shoes on the thirty-four last. Th is phrase te l ls the wrapper not tostr et ch the s ho es, but to wrap them up as they are and hold them undetthe counter for a short while.

Stag ing cu e s are, of cou rse, employed between performers

and a shi l l or confe dera te in the audience, as in the ca se of

cr o ss f ire* between a pi tchman and his plant among the

su ck ers . More commonly we find th e se cue s employed among

teamm ates while engaged in a performance, th es e cue s in

fact providing us with one reaso n for employing the con cep t

of team instead of analyzing interaction in terms of a patternof individual performa nces. Th is kind of teammate collu sion ,

for example, plays an important role in impression management

in American sh op s. Cle rks in a given store commonly develop

their own cues for handling the performance presented to the

customer, al though certain terms in the vocabulary seem to be

relatively standardized and occur in the same form in many

sh op s ac ro ss the country. When cl er ks are members of a foreign

language group, a s is sometimes the ca se , they may employ

this langua ge for se cr et commun icat iona pra ct i ce also

employed by pa re nts who sp e ll out words in front of young

children and by members of our better cl a s s e s who talk to

each other in French about things they do not want their

children , their do me stic s, or their trades me n to hear. However,

this tact ic, l ike whispering, is considered crude and impoli te;

secrets can be kept in this way but not the fact that secretsare being kept. Under such circu m stan ce s, teammates can

hardly maintain their f ront of s incere sol ici iude for the customer

(or fran kne ss to the chi ldren, etc. ) . Harmlesssounding ph rases

which the customer thinks he understands are more useful to

sa les pe rso ns . Fo r example, if a customer in a shoe store

deeply de sire s, say, a B width, the sa lesm an can co nvince

the customer that that is what she is gett ing:

'David Gel le r , 'L ingo of the Shoe Salesman, ' tmerican ' tprerh. I \ , K V

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. . . . t he s a le sm a n w il l c a ll to a no th er s a le sm a n down t he a i s leand say , " B e n n y what s ize I s th is sho e ?' 1 By cal l ing the salesman,' Benny he im plie s that the an sw er should be tha t the width i s B. 1

An engaging illustration of this kind of collusion is given in

a paper on the Borax furniture house :

Now rhat the customer i s in the s to re , suppose sh e c a n t be sold?

Th e price i s too high; she must consul t her husband; she is onlyshopping. To let her walk, (i .e ., es ca pe without buying) is treas on ina Borax Hous e. So an S.O.S. is sent out by the sa lesm an through on eof the numerous footpus hes in the store. In a flash the m ana ger ' ison the sc en e, preocc upied with a suite and wholly obliviou s of theAladdin who sent for him.

"P ar do n me, Mr Dixon, sa y s the sal esm an, s imulat ing relucrancein distur bing such a busy personag e. "I wonder if you could do somethingfor my cus tom er. She thinks the pric e of th is suite is too high. Madam,this is our manager, Mr Dixon."

Mr Dixon d e a r s his throat impre ssively, l ie is al l of s ix feet , ha sirongrey hair and wea rs a Masonic pin on the l ape l of hi s coat Nobodywould suspect from his appearance that he is only a T.O. man, a specialsalesman ro whom difficult customers are turned over.

" Y e s ," sa ys Mr Dixon, stroking bis w ellsh aven chin, *1 see.You go on, Bennett . Ill take care of madam myse lf. Pm not so busyu the moment anyhow.*

The salesman slips away, valetl ike, though hell give Dixoo hellif he muffs chat sale. 2

The pract ice des crib ed here of 1T .O .in g a customer to anothe r

salesm an who takes the role of the manager is apparently

common in many retai l es tab lish m en ts . O ther i l lu stra t io ns

may be taken from a report on the language of furniture

s a l e s m e n :

'Give me the number of this ar t icle, is a quest ion concerning theprice of the ar t ic le . T he forthcoming resp ons e i s in code. T he codcis unive rsal throughout the United S tat es and is c onveyed by simplydoubling the co st , the salesm an knowing what perce ntage of profi t toadd on to that. 3

V er li er i s u se d a s a command . . . . m ea nin g 'l o s e y o ur se lf . 1 I t isemployed when a salesman wants to let another salesman know thar the

lat ter ' s presence is in terfer ing with a sale. 4In the semii l legal and hig hpressu re fr inges of our

commercial life, it is common to find that teammates use an

explicitly learned vocabulary through which information crucial

to the show can be sec retl y conveyed. Presu ma bly this kind

of code is not commonly found in thoroughly respectable

ci rc le s. 5 We find, however, tha t team mate s everywhere employ

^David Gelier, op. ci t . t p. 284.

2 Conant, op. ctt . , p. 174.

^Charles Miller, ' Furniture Lingo,' American Speech, VI, 128.

A lb id .%p. 126.

5 An exce pt ion, of course, is found in the bos ssc creta ry relat ion inres pec table esta bl ishm ents. Esquire Et iquet te , for example, approvesthe fo llowin g; p. 24 .

Mf you sh ar e youc office with your se cre tar y, you will do well toarrange a signal which means you'd l ike her to get out while you t alk toa visitor in priv ate . "Will you leave us alone for a while, Mis sSm ich*embarrasses everybody; i t ' s easier al l around if you can convey the sameid ea , by prear rang eme nt, with som ethi ng li ke, * Will you s e e if you canset t le that business with the merchandising department , Miss Smith?" '

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an informally and often unconsciously learned vocabulary of

gestures and looks by which collusive s taging cues can be

conveyed.

Somet imes these informal cues or 'h igh s igns ' wi l l in i t ia te

a ph ase in a performance. Th us, when in company,1 a husband

may c on ve y to his wife, by su b tl e sha di ng s in his to ne ofvoice, or a change in his posture, that the two of them will

defini tely now star t making their farew ells . The conjugal

team can then maintain an appearance of unity in action which

looks spontaneous but of ten presupposes a s t r ic t d isc ipl ine .

Sometimes cu es are av aila ble by which one performer can

warn anoth er that the oth er is beginning to ac t out of l ine.

The kick under the table and the narrowed eyes have become

humorous exam ples. A piano acc om pan ist su gg es ts a way by

which deviat ing concert s ingers can be brought back into tune:

He (the a ccom panist) doe s this by get t ing more sh arp ne ss into histone, so that his tone wil l penetr ate to the sin ge rs e ars, over or ratherthrough his voice. Pe rh ap s one of the notes in the pianoforte harmonyis the very note that the singer shou ld be singing , and so he ma kesth is note predom inate. When this ac tu al note is not writcen in thepianoforte pa r t , he must add it in the treb le c le f , where it will p ipeloud and clea r foe the sin ge r to hear. If the latter is singing a quarterof a tone sharp, or a quarter of a tone f lat , i t will be an extraordinar y

feat on h is part to cont inue to sin g out of tune, esp ec ial l y i f theacc om pa nis t pla ys the voc al l ine with him for the whole phr ase . Oncehaving seen the danger signal the accompanist wil l cont inue to be onthe qui v ive and will sound the singer 's note from time to t ime. 1

Th e same writer goes on to say something that app lie s to

many kinds of performances:

A se ns i t iv e singer w il l need only the most dcl ic atc of cu cs fromhis partner . Indeed they can be so del ica te chat even die singe r himselfwhile prof iting by them will not be co ns ci ou sl y aware of Cnem. Th ele ss se nsi t ive the singe r , the more pointed and therefore the more

obvious these cues wil l have to be. 2

Another exam ple may be ci te d from Dale s di sc u ss io n of how

civil se rva nts during a meeting can cue their minister that

he is on t reacherous ground:

But in the course of conversation new and unforeseen points may wellar ise . If a civil serva nt at the comm ittee then se e s hi s Minister talcinga line which he thin ks wrong, he will nor say s o fla tly ; he will eithe rscribble a note to the Minister or he will delicately put forward somefa ct or sug ge st ion a s a minor modif icat ion of hi s Minister' s view. An

exp erie nced Minister will per cei ve the red light at once and gentlywithdraw, or at lea st postpone disc ussi on. I t will be clear that themixture of Minis ters and civil se rva nts in a Committee req uire s onocc asio n some exe rci se of tact and some quickness of percept ion onboth s id e s . 3

Very frequently informal staging cues will warn teammates

that the audienc e has suddenly come into their pr ese nc e; 4

1 Moore, op. cit . , pp. 5657.

p. 57.

3Dale, op. cit . , p. 141.

A wellknown form allyle ame d cue of th is kind is found in the visua l signal

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or that the coast is clear and thar relaxation of ones front is

now possible; or that while it may seem all right to drop ones

guard of discretion, there are in fact members of the audience

present, making it inadv isa b le to do s o : 1 o r that an innocent

'ooking member of the audience is real ly a spot ter or shopper

or someone who is in other ways more or less than he seems.It would be diffi cu lt for any team a family, for exa mp le

to manage the impressions i t fosters without such a set of

warning sig na ls. A rece nt memoir conc erning a mother and

daughter who lived in one room in London provides che

following example:

On the way p a s t Gen naro 's 1 becam e filled wich app re hen sio n aboutour lunch, wondering how my mother would take to Scotty (a manicurist*

col league she was bringing home to lunch for the f i rst t ime) and whatScotty would think of my mother, and we were no sooner on the staircasethan 1 started to talk in a loud voice to warn her chat 1 was no t a lone.Indee d, this w as qui te a signal betw een us, for when two peop le l ivein a sing le room there is no tel l ing what sort of unt id ines s can meetthe unexpected v is i to rs eye . There wa s near ly a lways a cookinpanor a dir ty plate where i t should not be, or s toc king s or a pet t ico atdrying above the stove . My mother, warned by the rai se d voice of herebul l ien t da ughter , would rush round l ik e a cir cus danc er hiding thepan or the p la te or the s to c k in g s , and then tum herself in to a p il lar offrozen dignity, very calm, all ready for the visitor. If sh e had cle are dthing s up too quic kly, and forgotten som ethin g very obvious, 1 would

se e her vi gil ant eye fixed upon it and I would be exp ec ted to do some*thing about i t without exci t ing the visi tor ' s at tent ion. 2

It may be noted, f inally, that the more un co ns ciou sly th es e

cu es are lea rned and employed, the ea si er i t will be for the

members of a team to conceal even from themselves that they

do in fact function as a team. As previou sly sugge sted , even

to i ts own members, a team may be a secret society.

Clo sely as so cia te d with staging cues, we f ind that teams

work out ways of conveying extended verbal messages to oneanoth er in such a way as to protect a projected impre ssion

chat might be disrupted were the audi enc e to ap pre cia te that

employed in broa dcas t ing studios which l i reral ly or symbolical ly rea ds : You are on the ai r. ' Another broad ges ture is reported by Pons onby ,np, cit , p. 102 :

'T h e Queen (Victor ia) o ften went to s lee p dur ing these ho t d r ives ,and in order that s he should not be seen l ike this by a crowd in a vi l lage,1 used to dig my spurs into the horse whenever 1 saw a large crowd ahead

and make the asto nish ed animal jump about and make a nois e. Pr in ce ss[Beatrice always knew that this meant a crowd, and if the Queen didn'twake with the noise 1 made, she woke her herself . '

A typical warning cue is i l lustrated by Katherine Archibald, op, cit., in her study of work in a shipyard :

* At ti mes whe n work w a s e s p e c i a l l y s la c k I h a ve my se lf s to o d guar da t the door of a tool sha ck , ready' to warn of the app roach of a super*intend ent or a frontoffice b oss, while for day after day nine or ten les se r

b o s s e s and workmen played poker wi th pa s s io n a te absorp t ion . '

C ri m in a ls commonly employ sig nals of thi s kind to warn their col le agu esthat ' l e g i t ' ea rs are l i s ten ing to them or leg i t eye s are watch ing them;

in cr iminal argot this warning is cal le d 'g iv ing the off ice . '2Mrs Robert l lenrey, Madeleine Grown Up (New Yo rk : Dutton , 1953), PP*

'1647.

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information of this kind was bein g conv eyed . Again we may

cite an i l lustrat ion from the Bri t ish civi l service:

I t is a very different matter when a civi l serva nt is cal l ed on towatch over a Dill in i ts pa ss ag e through Parlia men t, or to go down toei t her Hou se for a deba te. He cann ot spea k in his own person ; he canonly supply the Minister with material and sug ge st io ns, and hope tha t

he will make good use of them. It need hardly be sa id that the Ministeris caref ully *briefed* beforehand for an y set spe ech , as on the secondor third readin g o f an important Dill , or the introdu ction o f theDepar tment 's annual es t im ate s : for such an occas ion the Minis ter i ssupplied with full notes on every point l ikely to be raised, even withanecdotes and Might re l ief 1 of a dec orou s official nature. He himself,h is Pr ivate Secre tary , and the Permanent Secre tary probably spend agood deal of time and labour in sel ec tin g from th es e note s the mosteffect ive poin ts to em phas ize, arranging them in the best order anddev isin g an im pre ssi ve pero ration. All this is ea sy both for the Ministerand his of f ic ia ls ; i t is done in quiet and at leisure . Dut the crux isthe reply at the end of a deb ate. Th ere the Minister must mainly depend

on himself . I t is true that the civ i l ser van ts si t t in g with pat ientend ura nce in the li t t le gallery on the Spe aker 's right or ac the entran ceto the House of Lords, have noted down inacc ura cie s and disto rt ionsof fact , fals e infe ren ces , m isunders tandings of the Government propos alsand s imi lar we ak ne sse s , in the case prese n ted by Opposit ion spe ake rs :bu t ir i s often d if f icu l t co get th is ammunition up to the firingline .Sometimes the Minis ters Pa rliam enta ry P rivate S ecre tary wili rise fromhis se at jus t beh ind h is ch ief , s t ro l l c are le ss ly a long to the off icia lgal iety and hold a whispered conversa t ion with the civi l se rva nt s:some times a note wil l be pa ss ed along to the Minis ter : very rarely hehim self will come for a moment and as k a question . All th es e li t t le

communications must go on under the eyes of the House, and no Ministerca re s to seem l ike an actor who does not know his part ar.d requiresto be prompted. 1

Business e t iquet te , perhaps more concerned wi th s t ra tegic

secrets than with moral ones, offers the fol lowing suggest ions:

. . . Guard your end of a phone conve rsa tion if an ou tsi de r is withinea rsh ot. If you are ta kin g a mes sage from someone el se , and you wantto be sure youve got i t s t ra ight , don ' t repe at the m ess age in the usualfash ion ; ins tea d , a sk the cal le r to repeat i t , so your c larion toneswon ' t announce a poss ib ly pr ivate message to a l l bys tanders .

. . . Cover your pa pe rs before an outsid e ca lle r arr ive s, or make ahabit of keeping them in folders or under a covering blank sheer.. . . If you must speak to someone e lse in your organizat ion when

lie is with an outsi der , or with anyone who is not concerned with yourm es sa ge , do it in such a way chat che chird person d o e s n t pick up anyinformation. You might use the interoffice telephon e rathe r than theintercom, say , or write your me ss ag e on i note you can hand overinstead of speaking your piece in publ ic. 2

A visit or who is expec ted s hould be announ ced imme diately. If youare clo set ed with another person your secretary interru pts you to saysomething like , q Your three oclock ap pointme nt is here. I thought

yo u d like to kn ow , (She d oe s n 't mention the v is it or s name in thehe ari ng of an ou ts id er . If you arc not likely to remember who your three oclock a ppo intm ent is , she wri tes the name on a sl ip of papetand hands i t to you, or uses your private phone instead of the loudspeakersys tem.) 3

Staging cu es have been sug ge sted as one main type of

team collusion; another type involves communications which

function chiefly to confirm for the performer the fact that he

iDale, op. cit . , pp. M8149.

2Esquire E t iquet te , op. ci f . , p. 7 . El l ip si s do ts the auth ors .

* Esquire Etiquett e , op. cit., pp. 2223.

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do es not really hold with the working co ns en su s, thac the

show he pu ts on is only a show, th ereby providing hims elf

with at least a pr ivate defence against the claims made by the

audience. We may label th i s act iv i ty 'de r i s ive co l lus ion ; ' it

typical ly involves a secret derogat ion of the audience al though

sometimes concept ions of the audience may be conveyed thatare too comp limentary to fit within the working co ns en su s.

We have here a furt ive public counterpart of what was described

in the seccion cal led 'Treatment of the Absent .

Derisive col lusion occurs most f requent ly, perhaps, between

a performer and hi nisei f. School ch ild ren provid e exam ples of

this when they cross their f ingers while tel l ing a l ie or st ick

out th eir to ngue s when the tea ch er momentarily moves to a

posit ion where sh e cannot s e e the tribute. So, too, em ployees

wil l of ten gr imace at their boss, or gest iculate a si lent curse,

performing the se a c t s of contempt or insubordination at an

angle such that those to whom these acts are directed cannot

se e them. Pe rh ap s the most timid form of th is kind of co llu sio n

is found in the pract ice of 'd o o d l in g 1 or of going aw ay to

imaginary plea sa nt place s, whi le st i l l maintaining some show

of performing the part of listener.Derisive col lusion a lso o ccurs between members of a

team when they are pres en ting a performance. Th us, while a

secret code of verbal insults may perhaps be employed only

on the lun atic fringe of our comme rcial l ife, the re i s no

commercial esta bl ishm ent so reputa ble tha t i ts clerks do not

c a s t eac h othe r knowing looks when in the pre sen ce of an

undesirable cl ient or a desirable cl ient who conducts himself

in an und esi rab le way. Similarly, in our so ci et y it is verydifficult for a husband and wife, or two close friends, to spend

an evening in convivial interaction with a third person without

at some t ime looking at each other in such a way as to

contradict secret ly the at t i tude they are off icial ly maintaining

toward the third person.

A more damaging form of th is kind of ag gr es sio n aga inst

th e a ud ien ce is found in si t ua tio ns where one member of a

team performs his part for the s pe ci al and s ec re t amusement

of h is tea m ma tes ; for exam ple, he may throw himse lf into

his part with an affect ive enthusiasm that is at once exaggerated

and pre cise , but so c lo se to what the audien ce ex pec ts that

they do not quite realize, or are not sure, that fun is being

made of them. 1 A somewhat similar form of col lusion occurs

Sugg ested by Howard S. Beck cr in a pe rso na l commun icati on. Mr Beck er

srates r l ia t jazz musicians obliged to play corny music wil l sometimesplay it a l i t t le more corny than necessa ry , the s l ig h t exaggerat ion servingns a means by which the musicians can convey to each other their contemptfor the audience.

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when one team member at temtps to tease another while both

are engag ed in a performance. T he immediate object here

will be to make ones teammate almost burst out laughing,

or almo st t rip, or a lmo st los e h is po ise in other ways. For

example, in the island tourist hotel studied by the writer , the

cook would somet imes s tand at the ki tchen entrance to thefront regions of the hotel and solemnly answer with dignity

and in standa rd En glish the qu es tio ns put to him by hotel

guests, while from within the kitchen the maids, straightfaced,

would se cre t ly but pe rsis ten t ly g oose him. By mocking the

the audience or teasing a teammate, the performer can show

not only that he is not bound by the official interaction but

also that he has this interact ion so much under control that

he can toy wirh it at will.A final form of de ri si ve byp lay may be me ntion ed. Often

when an individual is inte rac ting with a seco nd individual

who is offen sive in som e way, h e will t ry to ca tch the eye

of a third in div idu alone who is def ined a s an outsid er

to the i n te ra ct io n and in th is way confirm that h e i s not to

be held r esp on s ib le for the ch a rac te r or behaviour of the second

individu al . I t may be noted in con clus ion that al l of th es e

forms of der is ive col lusion tend to ar ise almost involuntar i ly,

by cu e s tha t are conveyed before they can be checked.

Reoligning Actions

I t has been suggested that when individuals come together

for the purpose of interact ion, eac h adh eres to the part that

has been cast for him within his teams routine, and eachjo ins with h is team m ates in m aintaining the appropriate mixture

of formali ty and informali ty, of d is ta n c e and intimacy, toward

the members of the other team. T his d oes not mean th at team-

mates wil l openly t reat one another in the same way a s they

openly t reat the audience, but i t does usual ly mean that team-

mates wil l t reat one another differently from the way that would

be most ' n a t u r a l 1 for them. C o l lu s ive communication h a s been

suggested as one way in which teammates can f ree themselvesa l i t t le f rom the rest r ic t ive requirements of interact ion between

tea m s; i t i s a kind of deviat io n f rom type w hich the audience

is meant to remain unaware of, and i t tends, therefore, to leave

the status quo intac t . However, performers rarely seem con tent

with safe channels for expressing discontent with the working

consensus . They of ten a t tempt to speak out of charac ter in

a way that wil l be heard by the audience but wil l not openly

threa ten ei ther the integr i ty of the two teams or the social120


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dist an ce between them. T h es e temporary unofficial, or

controlled realignments, often aggressive in character, provide

an interest ing area for s tudy.

When two teams establish an official working consensusas a guarantee for safe social interaction, we may usually

detect an unofficial l ine of communication which each teamdi re ct s a t the other. Th is uno fficial communication may be

carried on by innuendo, mimicked ac ce nt s, wellplaced jokes,

signif icant pauses, vei led hints , purposeful kidding, expressive

overtone s, and many other sign pr ac tice s. Ru les regarding

this lax ity are quite stric t . The communicator ha s the right to

deny t hat he 'm ean t any t h ing1 by h i s ac ti on , shou ld h is

recipients accuse him to his face of having conveyed something

unacceptable, and the recipients have the r ight to act as i f

nothing, or only something innocuous, has been conveyed.

In many kinds of social interaction, unofficial communication

provides a way in which one team can extend a defin ite but non-

compromising invitat ion to the other, requesting that social

distance and formali ty be increased or decreased, or that both

teams shift the interaction to one involving the performance

of a new set of roles. This is sometimes known as 'p ut t ingout f e e le r s and involves guarded dis cl os ur es and hinted

demands. By means of sta tem en ts that are caref ully ambiguous

or that have a secret meaning to the init iate, a performer is

able to discover, without dropping his defensive stand, whether

or not i t is safe to dispense with the current definit ion of the

si tuat ion. For example, s in ce i t i s not nec es sary to retain

so ci al di sta nc e or be on guard before th os e who are on es

col leagues in occupat ion, ideology, ethnici ty, class, etc. , i ti s common for col leagues to develop secret s igns which seem

innocuous to noncolleagues while at the same t ime they convey

to th e ini tia te tha t he is among his own and can relax the

pose he m aintains toward the public. Thus the murderous

Thug s of nineteenth century India, who hid th ei r annual

de pred ation s behind a ninemonth show of civicminded ac tions ,

p o ss e s se d a code for recognizing one another. As one writer

s u g g e s t s :

When Thugs meet, though strangers, there is something in theirmanner which soon discovers i tself to each other , and to assure thesurmise thus exci ted , one excla ims 'A le e K han ! ' which , on beingrepea ted by the other party, a recognit ion of each others habi t ta ke s

p lace . . . *

Similarly, men of the British working class can be found who

st i l l ask a s t ranger 'how far East i s he; fe l low Freemasons

C o l . [ . L . S l e e ma n , Tkugs or a Million Murders (London: Sampson Low,n. d.), p. 79.

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know how to answer this password and know that after they

do answer i t those present can re lax in to in to lerance for

C atho l ics and the ef fe te c la ss e s . In AngloAmerican society

the surname and the appearance of persons to whom one is

introduce d serv e a sim ilar function, tel l in g one which of the

segments of the populat ion i t wi l l be impoli t ic to castaspers ions aga ins t .

Th e guarded di sc lo su re by which two members of an intimate

society make themselves known to each other is perhaps the

le a st su bt le version of dis clo siv e communicat ion. In everyday

l i fe, where individua ls have no se cre t so ciety to dis cl os e

the ir membership in, a more d el ic a te pr oc es s is involved.

When in div idu als are unfamiliar with ea ch oth ers opin ions

and s ta t us es , a feel ingout pr oc es s occurs whereby one

individual admits his v iew s or s ta tu se s to another a l i t t le at

a t ime. After dropping his guard ju st a l i t t le he wa its for the

othe r to show rea son why i t is sa fe for him to do this , and

after this reassurance he can safely drop his guard a l i t t le

b i t more. By phras ing each s te p in the adm ission in an

ambiguous way, the individual is in a position to halt the

procedure of dropping his front at the point where he ge ts noconfirmation from the other, and at this point he can act as if

h is la st disc losu re were not an overture at al l . Th us when

two persons in conv ersat io n are at tempting to discov er how

care ful they are going to have to be about sta t ing the ir true

po li t ica l opinions , one of them can halt h is gradual d isc losure

o f how far left or how far righ t he is j us t a t the point where

the other has come to the fur thest extreme of his actual bel iefs .

In suc h c a se s, the person with the more extreme view s willtac tfu lly act a s if his views are no more extreme than the

others.

Th i s p rocess o f g radual guarded d i sc losu re i s a l so

il lu str ate d by some of the mythology and a few of the fac ts

as so ci at ed with sexua l l i fe in our soc iety. The sexu al relat ion

is defined a s one of intimacy with ini t iat ive superordinat ion

for the male. In fact , courting pra cti ce s involve a conce rtedaggre ssion aga inst the al ignment between the sex es on the

part of the male, as he a t tem pts to manoeuvre someone for

whom he must at f i rs t show res pe ct into a po si t ion of

subordinate int imacy. However, an even more ag gr es siv e act ion

against the al ignment between the sexes is found in si tuat ions

where the working con se ns us is defined in terms of super

ordination and distance on the part of a performer who happens

to be a woman and su bo rdi na tion on the part of a performerwho happe ns to be a man. T he p os sib il i ty ar is e s that the

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male performer will red efin e the sicuation to em pha size his

sexual superordinat ion as opposed to his socioeconomic

su bo rd in at io n. 1 In our pr ole ta ria n l it er a tu r e, f or exa mple ,

i t is the poor man who introduc es th is rede finit ion in regard

to a rich woman; Lady Chatterley's J^over, as has often been

remarked, is a clea rcu t example. And when we study ser viceoccupat ions, especial ly lowly ones, inevi tably we f ind that

p rac ti tione rs have anecdo tes to tell about the time they or

one of their colleagues redefined the service relacion inco

a sex ual one (or had i t rede fined for them). T a le s of such

ag gre ssiv e redefini t ions are a signif ican t part of the myth-

ology not only of part icular occupations but also of the male

subcul ture general ly.

Temporary realignments through which i irec tion of the

interaction may be seized in an unofficial way by a subordinate,

or unofficial ly exten ded by a supe rordinate, at tain some kind

of stabil i ty and insticutionalization in what is sometimes

ca l led ' dou ble talk . 2 By thi s commu nication tech niqu e two

individuals may convey information to one another in a manner

or on a matter chat is i nc on sis ten t with their official relat ion-

ship. Doubletalk invo lve s the kind of innuendo that canbe conveyed by both s id e s and carried on for a su s ta in e d period

of time. It is a kind of co llu siv e communication differenc

from other type s of collus ion in thac the cha rac ter s again st

whom th e co llusio n is susta ine d are projecced by the very

persons who enter into the collus ion . Typically doubletalk

occ urs during interaction between a subordin ate and a super-

ordinate concerning matters which are off icial ly ou tside the

the competence and jurisdiction of the subordinate buc which

ac tua lly depend on him. By employing doubletalk the sub-

ordinate c an ini t ia te l ine s of act ion without giving open

recognit ion to the e xp re ssiv e implication of such init iat ion

and without putt ing into jeopardy the status difference between

himsel f and his superordinate . Barracks and ja i l s apparent ly

abound in dou bleta lk. It is al so commonly found in sit ua tio ns

Pe rhap s becau se of resp ect for the F reudian e th ic , some soc io log is t sseem to a c t as i f it would be io bad tas te , impious, or selfreve latory todef ine sexual in tercourse as par t o f the ceremonial sys tem, a rec iprocalr i tual performed to confirm symbolical ly an exclusive social relat ionship.This chapter draws heavi ly on Kenneth Burke, who clearly takes thesociological view in defining courtship as a pr inciple of rhetoric throughwhich socia l es t rangements are t ranscended . See Burke, A Grammaro f Mot ives, p. 208 ff. and p p. 267268.

2 In everyday speech the term 'double ta lk ' i s a l so used in two o ther senses :i t i s used to refer to sen te nce s in which sounds have been in jected whichseem a s i f they mi^ht be meaningful but rea l ly are n ot ; i t is used to refer

to pro tect ively ambiguous answers to ques t ions for which the aske r des i re da c l e a r c u t r ep ly .

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where the subordinate has had long experience with the job

whereas the superordinate has not , as in the spl i t which occurs

in government offices between a 'permanent deputy minis ter

and a pol i t ica l ly appointed minis ter , and in those cases where

the subordinate sp ea ks the langu age of a group of employees

but h is superord ina te d o es not. We may a lso find doubletalkin s i tu a t ion s where two pe rson s engage in i l l ic i t agreements

with each other, for by this technique communication may

occur and yet ne i ther par t ic ipant need place himself in the

han ds of the other. A similar form of co llu sion is sometimes

found bet wee n two team s which must ma intain the impressio n

of be ing re la t ive ly ho s t i le or re la t ive ly d is tant toward each

other and yet find it mutually profitable to come to an agreement

on ce r ta in mat ters , providing th is do es not em barrass the

opp osit ional s tand they are obliged to be ready to maintain

toward each other. 1 In other words, d ea ls can be made without

crea t ing the mutualsol idar i ty re la t ionship which deal ing

usu ally lea d s to. More important, perhaps, doubletalk regularly

oc cu rs in in t imate domest ic and work s i tua t ion s , as a safe

means of making and refusing requests and commands that

could not be openly made or openly refused without al teringthe re la t ionship .

I ha ve co ns id er ed some common realig nin g ac tio n smove-

ments around, or over, or away from the line between the teams;

p r o c e s s e s such a s "no ff ic ia l grumbling, guarded d isc lo su re s ,

and double ta lk were given as ins tan ces . 1 would l ike to

add a few more types to the picture.

When the working consensus established between two teams

i s one invo lving avowed opposit ion, we find that th e divis ion

of labour within each team may ultimately lead to momentary

rea lign m en ts of the kind that make us ap pr ec iate that not only

armi es have the problem of fraternizat ion . A sp ec ia l is t on

one team may find that he has a grea t de al in common with

his opp osite number on the other team and that toge ther they

talk a languag e which tends to al ign them togeth er on a s ingle

team in opposit ion to al l the remaining par t icip an ts . Thus,during labourmanagement neg otiat io ns, opposing lawye rs

may find themselves exchanging collusive looks when a layman

on ei th er team makes a patent legal gaffe. When the sp e ci a l is ts

are not permanently part of a part icu lar team but rathe r hire

the m selv es out for the durat ion of neg otia t ion s, they are l ikely

to be more loyal in some se n se to th ei r ca t l in g and their

lSee Dale , op. cit . , pp. 182183, foe an illustration of t ac i t compromisesbetween two teams of f ic ia l ly opposed to each other . See a l s o MelvilleDalton, 'Unofficial UaionManagement Relat ions, American Socio logica l

R ev iew , XV, pp . 611619.

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c o ll ea g u e s chan to rhe team they happ en at the time to

be serving. If, then, the im pression of opposit ion between

che teams i s to be maintained, the cros scu t t ing loya l t ies of

sp e ci a l i s t s will have to be supp resse d or exp ress ed surrep-

t i t iously . Th us American lawyers , in se ns ing that their c l ients

want them to be hosti le to the opposing lawyer, may waitunti l a bac kstage re c es s before having a f r iendly col legial

ch at about the ca se in prog ress. In di sc u ss in g the role that

civi l se rv a nts play in parl iamentary deb ate s, Dale makes a

s imi la r sugges t ion :

A sec deba te on one sub jec t . . . . a s a ru le t ak es only one day .If a Department is so unlucky as to have a long and contentious BUI inCommittee of the whole House, the Minister and th e civ il se rv an ts incharge of it must be there from 4 p.m. till 11 p.m. (sometimes much laterif the 1! o' clo ck rule is suspen ded), perh aps day aft er day from Mondayt il l T h ur sd ay e ve ry w e e k . . . . H ow ev er , t he c i v il s e rva n ts g e t on ecompensation for their sufferin gs. I t is a t this t ime tha t they are mostl ike ly to renew and extend the i r acqu aintanc es in the Hou se . The sen seof pr ess ur e is le ss both amon Members and among off ici als than duringa set deb ate of one day : it is legit imate to es ca p e ftom the debatingchambe r to the smoking*room ot the terra ce and engag e in cheerfulconv ersa tion while a noto rious bote is moving an amendment whicheveryon e knows to be imp ossi ble. A certa in camaraderie ar ises amongall engaged night after night upon a Bil l , Government Opposit ion, andcivi l se rvants a l ike . 1

Interest ing ly enough, in some c a se s even b ack stag e frater-

niza tion may be cons idere d too much of a threat to the show.

Thu s baseb al l players whose team s will represe nt opposing

sides of fans are required by league ruling to refrain from

conviv ial co nv ers atio n with one anot her just before the game

s tar t s .

T his i s a readily under stand able rule . I t would not be seemly tose e p laye rs chinning as if they were at an afternoon tea, and then hopeto support the point chac they go after each other hellbent for leather,which they do, as soon as the game begi ns. They have to act likeopponents all the time. 2

In al l of these cases involving fraternizat ion between opposing

special is ts , the point is not that the secrets of the teams wil l

be d isc lo se d or their in te re s ts made to suffer (although th is

may o cc ur an d may appe ar to occur) but rathe r that the im-

press ion of opposit ion that is fos tered between the team s may

be d isc red i ted . The contribution of the sp e c ia l i s t must appearto be a sp ontaneous response to the facts of the ca se , inde-

pendently p lacing him in opposit ion to the other team ; when

he frater nizes with his opposi te number the tech nica l value

of his contribution may not suffer, but, dram aturg ically spea king,

it is shown up for what it is the pu rc ha se d performance of

a routine task.

I do not mean to imply by this discussion that fraternization

1UUe, op. cit., p. 150.

P in ell i, op cif ., p. 169

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occ urs only between s pe cia l i s t s temporar ily taking s ide s

ag ain st each o ther . Whenever loya l t ies cros scu t , a se t of

individuals may loudly form one pair of teams while quietly

forming another.

Often, when two team s en ter socia l inte ract ion , we can

ident i fy one as having the lower general prest ige and the otherteam the higher. Ordinari ly, when we think of realign ing

ac t ion s in such c a se s , we think of effor ts on the part of the

lower team to al ter the basis of interact ion in a direct ion more

favourable to them or to decrease the social d i s tance and

formali ty between themselves and the higher team. Interest ingly

enough, there are oc ca sio ns when it se rve s the wider goals

of the higher team to lower barriers and admit the lower team

to grea ter int imacy and equa l i ty with i t. Gran t ing the con-

se qu en ce s of extending bac ksta ge fami l iar i ty to on es less er s ,

i t may be in on es longran ge in te re st to do s o momentarily.

Th us, in order to prev en t a strike, Mr Barnard te l l s u s he

del iberate ly swore in the presence of a commit tee represent ing

unemployed workers and als o te l l s us that he i s aware of the

s ign i f i cance o f th i s :

In my judgment, confirmed by others whose opinion I respect,i t is as a general rule exceedingly bad practice fot one In a superior

posi t ion to sw e a r at or in the p resen ce of those of subordina te or inferiors tatus even though the la t te r have no objection to oath s and eventhough they know the superior is acc usto med to cursing . I have knownvery few men who could do it without adyerse reactions on rhelr influence.I suppose the reason is tha t what ever lowers the dignity of a superior

posi t ion m akes it more d if f icul t to a cce p t diffe rence of posi t ion . Also ,where a s ingle organization i s involved in which the superio r posi t ionis symbol ic of the whole organiza t ion, the pres t ige of the la t te r i sthought to be injured. In the pres ent cas e, an exception, the oath was

deliberate and accompanied by hard pounding of the table . 1A similar s i tuat ion is found in those mental hospi tals

where mil ieu therapy is prac t ised. By bringing the nurse and

even a t tend ants in to what are usually sac rosa nct s taf f con-

ferences , these nonmedical s taf f persons can feel that the

d i s t an ce be tween themse lves and the doc to r s i s decreas ing

and may show more re a d in e ss to take the doc to rs point of

view toward the pat ien ts . By sacr i f ic ing the ex clu s iv en es s

o f tho se at the top, i t i s fel t that the morale of thos e at thebottom can be inc re ased . A s ta id report of th is p roce ss i s

given us by Maxwell Jones in his report on English experience

with milieu therapy:

1 Chester I. Barnard, Organization and Management (Cambridge, Ma ss.:Harvard Universi ty P re ss , 1949), n. pp. 7374. Th is kind of conduct mustbe c lear ly d is t ingu ished from the rough language and behaviour employedby a supe rordioa te who s ta y s within the team made up of h i s employees

and ' k i d s ' them in to work.126


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In che unit we h ave att em pte d co de vel op the role of the d oct or to meerour l imi ted t reatment goat and have t r ied to avoid pte ien ce. T his hasmean t a con sid era ble break from hospi tal tradit ion. Vic do not dr es sto conform co the usu al co nc ep t of the profe ssio nal man. Vt'e haveavoided the whi te coa t , prominent s te thoscope , and agg ress ive percuss ionhammer as excensions of our body image. 1

Actually, when we study the interaction between two

team s in everyday sit ua tio ns we find that often the super-

ordina te team will be exp ecte d to unbend just a l i t t le . F or one

thing, such relaxation of front provides a basis for barter;

the superordinate receives a service or good of some kind,

while the subordin ate re ce ive s an indulgent grant of intimacy.

Thus, the reserve which upperc lass people in Bri ta in mainta in

during interaction with tradesmen and petty officials has been

known to give way momentarily when a particular favour mustbe asked of th e se subordinates. Also, such re laxation of

distance provides one means by which a feel ing of spontanei ty

and involvemenc can be gen era ted in the inte ract ion . In any

ca se , interact ion between two teams often invo lves the taking

of very small l iber ties, if only a s a m eans of test ing the ground

to se e if un exp ected a dva ntage might not be taken of the

opposing side .

When a performer re fu se s to keep h is p lace , whether itis of higher or lower rank than the audience, we may expect

that the director, if there is one, and the au die nce may well

become i l l d isp osed toward him. In many c a se s , the rank

and fi le are als o l ikely to ob ject to him. As previously

suggested in reference to ra tebusters , any extra concession

to th e au di en ce on the part of one member of the team is a

threat to the stand the others have taken and a threat to the

se cur ity they obtain from knowing and contro lling th e standthey will have to tak e. Thus , when on e teac her in a school

is deeply sympathet ic to her charges, or enters into their play

during recess, or is will ing to come into close contact with

the lowstatus ones among them, the other teachers will f ind

that the im press ion they are trying to maintain of what

const i tutes appropria te work is threatened. 1 In fac t, when

particu la r performers c ro s s the l in e that s e p a ra te s the teams,

when someone beco me s too intimate, or too indulgent, or tooantagonistic, we may expect a circuit of reverberations to be

se t up which affects the subordinate team, the superord inate

team, and the part icular t ransgressors. ___________

1Maxwell Jo ne s, The Therapeut ic Community (New York: Basic Books,

1953), p. 40.

2 Per son al communication ftom He len Biaw, sch oo lteac her .

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A hint of such reverberations may be cited from a recent

study of merchant seamen, in which the author suggests that

when officers quarrel in matters regarding ship duty, the seamen

will avail themselves of the breach by offering their commiser-

ati on s to the office r chey feel h as been w ronged:

In doing t hi s (playing up to one of the di spu tan ts) the crewmenexpected the officer to relax in his superior at t i tude and to al low themen a cer ta in equali ty whi le d i scu ss in g the s i tua tion. T his soon ledto their expec ting certai n pr iv i le ge ssucn as s tandin g in the wheelh ouseinst ead of on the wings of the bridge. The y took advantage o f themates ' d ispute to ease the i r subordina te s ta tus . 1

Recenc t rends in psychiatr ic t reatment provide us with other

examples; I would l ike to mention some of these.

One instance may be taken from the Maxwell Jones report ,

al though his study purports to be an argumenc for easing statusdi f ference s between s taf f lev els and between pat ie nts and s taf f :

The integri ty of the nurses group can be upset by the indiscret ionof any one member: a nutse who al lows her sexual needs to be met inan o vert way by the patient a l ter s the pa tie nt s a t t i tude towards thewhole n ursing group and makes the nur se 's therapeutic role a les seffec t ive one . 2

Another i l lus tra tio n i s found in Be tte lhe im s commen ts on hi s

expe r ience in c onst ruc t ing a thera peut ic mi l ieu a t the Sonia

Shankman Orthogenic School at the Universi ty of Chicago:Within the tot al set t in g of the the rapeu tic mil ieu, person al secur i ty,

adequate ins t inc tua l gra t i f ica t ion and group support a ll se ns i t ize thechild to incerpersonal rel at io ns. I t would, of course, de fea t the pu tpo sesof milieu therapy if the children were not als o sa feg uar ded from thekind of dis i l lu sio nm ent they have alread y exp erien ced in their originalset t ing s. Staff cohere ncy is therefore an important sour ce of personalsecuri ty to the children as the s taff members remain impervious to thech ildr ens at tem pts to play off one s t af f member aga in st another.

Origin ally, many children win the affect ion of one pa rent only at theco st of affect io nate claim s on the other. A ch ilds means of controll ing

the family s icuarion by pit t ing one parent against the other is oftendeveloped on th is bas is , but g ives h im no more than a re la t ive secur i ty .Chi ldren who have u sed th i s technique with par t icula r suc ce ss areespec ia l ly handicapped in the i r abi l i ty to form unambivalent re la t ionshipsla t e r on. In any ca se , a s the children recrea te oedipa l s i tua t io ns in theschool they also form posit ive, negative or ambivalent a t tachments tovar ious s ta ff members . I t i s esse nt ia l tha t the se re la t ion ships be tweenchildren and individual s taff members do not affect the relat ionships ofs ta ff members to eac h other. Without coherence in this area of thetota l mi l ieu such a t tachments might de ter iora te in to neurot ic re la t ionshipsand d es t roy the b as i s of ident i f ica tion and sus ta in ed affec t ionate

a t t achments . 3A final illustration may be taken from a group therapy project,

in which s ug ge st ion s are sketc hed in for handling recurrent

in te rac t ion d i f f i cu l t i es caused by t roub lesome pa t i en t s :

Attempts are made to esta bli sh a spe cial relat ion ship with thedoctor. Pa t ie nts of ten a t tempt to cul t i va te the i l lus ion of a secr e tunde rstand ing with the doc tor by, for examp le, t rying to catch his eye

Beatt ie , op. c i l . , pp. 2526.

2Maxwell Jones, op. ciU, p. 38.3 Bruno Betrelheim and Emmy Sylvester , Milieu Therapy, Psychoana ly t i c Rev iew , XXXVI, 65.

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i f one pa t ient br ings up something tha t sounds ' c r az y. ' I f they succeedin get ting a res po nse from the doctor which they can inter pret asind icat ing a speci al bond, it can be very disrup ting to the group. Sincethis type of dangerous byplay is characteris t ical ly nonverbal , thedoctor must espe cia l ly control hi s own nonverbal a ct iv i ty. 1

Pe rha ps these ci ta t ion s tel l us more about the parr iy hidden

social sent im ent? of the wri ters than about the generalp ro c e s se s that can occur when som eone s te p s out o f line, but

rec en tly, in the work of Stan ton and Schw artz, we have been

given a fai rly de tai led report of the ci rcui t of co ns eq ue nc es

which ar ises when the l ine between two teams is crossed. 2

It w as sug ge sted that a t times of cr i s i s l ines may

momentarily break and members of opposing teams may moment-

ari ly forget their appropriate places with respect to one another .

I t was also suggested that cer tain purposes can sometimes beserved , app arently, when barriers between team s are lowered,

and . that to a ch ieve the se pu rpo ses supe rordinate teams may

temporari ly join with the lower ranks . I t must be added, a s a

kind of l imit ing case, that interact ing teams sometimes seem

to be prepared to step out of the dramatic framework for their

act io ns and give them selv es up for extended periods of t ime

to a promiscuous orgy of cl inical , rel igious, or ethical analysis .

We can find a lurid version of th is p ro ce ss in eva ng elic al

soc ial movements which employ the open co nfe ssi on . A sinner,

sometimes admittedly not of very high status, stands up and

tells to those who are present things he would ordinari ly at tempt

to conceal or ra t ional ize away; he sac r i f ice s h is se cr ets and

his sel f protect ive d is tance f rom others , and th is sacr i f ice

tends to induce a backstage solidari ty among all present.

Group therapy affords a similar mechanism for the building upof team spir i t and ba ck stag e sol ida ri ty. A psyc hic sinn et

1 Floren ce B. Powdermaker and others , 'Pre l im inar y Report for the NationalResearch C ounc i l : Group Thetapy Research P ro je c t , p . 26. (Th i s re sea rchha s s ince been reported by Powdermaker and' Jerome D. F rank, GroupPsychotherapy (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard Universi ty Press , 1953). )

Defrayal of one's team by catch ing the e ye of a member of the otherteam is, of course, a common occur ence . It may fee not ed tha t in everydaylife refusal to enter into momentary collusive communication of this kindwhen one has been invired to do so is itself a minor affront ro the inviter.One may find oneseLf in a dilemma as to whether to bet ray the obje ct ofthe requ ested col lusion or to affront the person req uest ing the collusion.An example is provided by Ivy ComptonBurnett, A Family and a Fortune (L on do n: Eyre & Sp oeti swood e, 1948), p. 13*

" B u t 1 was not snor ing," sa id Blanche , in the ea s ie r tone of los inggrasp of a s i tua t ion. * 1 should have known i t myself . I t would not be

p o ss ib le to be awake and m ak e a n o ise and not h e a r i t . 71 Ju st in e gav e an arch look at anyone who would receive i t . Edgar

did so as a duty and rapidly withdrew his eyes as another. 1

2 Alfred H. Stant on and Morris S. Schwartz, 'T h e Management of a Type ofIns t i tu t ional Par t ic ipa t ion in Menta l I l lness , 1 Psych ia t ry , XII, 1326.in th is paper the wri te rs desc r ibe nursespon sorship of par t icular pa t ientsin terms of i ts effects upon other patients , the s taff , and the transgressors .

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stands up and talks about himself and invi tes others to talk

about him in a way that would be impossible in ordinary inter-

act ion. Ingroup sol ida ri ty tend s to result , and this 's o c ia l

suppo r t , a s i t i s cal led , presumably h as therap eut ic value.

(By everyday standards, the only thing a pat ient loses in this

way i s h is se l f respec t . ) Perh aps an echo of th i s i s a l so tobe found in the nursedoctor m eetings previously mentioned.

It may be that th e se sh ifts from ap ar tn es s to intimacy

occ ur at time s of chr onic strain . Or pe rha ps we can view them

as part of an antidramaturgical social movement, a cult of

con fess ion . Pe rha ps such lowering of bar r iers represe nts

a natural ph as e in the social cha nge which t ransforms one

team into an other : presumably opposing teams t rade se cr ets

so that they can sta rt at the beginning to co lle ct a new set

of sk ele ton s for a newly shared clo se t . In any ca se , we f ind

that occasions ar ise when opposing teams, be they industr ial ,

mari tal , nat ional , etc. , seem ready not only to tel l their secrets

to the same special is t but also to perform this disclosure in

the enem ys pre sen ce. 1

In co nc lusi on I would l ike to su gg es t that one of the most

frui t ful places to study real igning act ions, especial ly temporarybe t raya ls , may not be in h ie ra rch ica lly o rgan ized e s tab l ishm e n ts

but during informal convivial in te rac t ion among re la tive equals .

In fact, the san ct ioned occurrence of the se a gg res s io ns seems

to be one of the defining character ist ics of our convivial l i fe.

I t i s of ten expected on such occasions that two persons wil l

engage each other in a sparr ing conversat ion for the benefi t

of l is te n er s and that each wil l attempt , in an uns erio us way,

to dis cre dit the posit io n taken by the other. F lirt in g mayocc ur in which m ales will try to destroy th e fe m ale s po se

of virginal u na ppro ach abil i ty, while fema les may attempt to

force from males a commitment of concern without at the same

time weaken ing their own def ens ive pos it ion. (Where tho se

who flirt are at th e sam e time members of diffe rent connu bial

teams, re la t ively unser ious bet rayals and sel l outs may also

occur .) In con versa t ional ci rc les of f ive or s ix, basic al ign-

ments a s between one conjugal pair and another, or between

h o st s and g ue st s, or between men and women, may be l ight

hear tedly set as ide, and the par t ic ipants wi l l s tand ready to

shift and reshift team alignments with l i t t le provocation,

jokingly joining their p rev ious aud ience ag a in s t their previous

'A n ex ample may be see n in the claimed role of the T av ist oc k group asth er ap is t s for working through' the antagonism of labour and managementin industrial es ta blis hm en ts . See the consulta t ion records reported inE l io t J aques , The Changing Culture of a Factory (London: Tavis tock Ltd. ,1951).

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tea m ma tes by m ean s of open betra yal of them or by mock

co l lus ive communicat ion ag ain st them. I t may al so be defined

as f i t t ing i f someone present of high status be made drunk and

made to drop his f ront and become int imately approachable by

hi s somewhaClessers . Th e same agg ress ive tone i s often

achieved in a l e s s so ph is t ica ted way by playing games orjokes in which the person who i s the butt will be led

unseriously, into taking a posi t ion that is ludicrously untenable.

QJOOOUJXU

In th is ch ap ter I ha ve con sidered four typ es of communi-

cat ion out of cha racte r : t reatment of the ab se n t ; s taging ta lk ;

team co l lus ion ; and real igning act ions . Eac h of th e se four

types o f conduct d i rec t s a t t en t ion to the same po in t : t he

performance given by a team i s not a spon taneous, immediate

resp on se to the situat io n, absorbing al l of the teams ene rgie s

and con st i tut ing their sole socia l rea l i ty ; the performance is

som ething the team members ca n sta nd back from, bac k far

enough to imagine or play out s imultaneo usly o the r kinds of

perform ances a t te s t in g to o ther r ea l i t ie s . Whether th e performersfeel their off icial offering is the re a l i s t rea l i ty or not,

they wil l give surrept i t ious expression to mult iple ve rsio ns

of reali ty, each tending to be incompatible with the others.

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