“Everything That Really Matters”: Social Suffering, Subjectivity, and the Remaking of Human Experience in a Disordering World
Abstract
When William James launched into the Gifford Lectures of 1901, he admitted to his Edinburgh audience a certain feeling of trepidation. Those lectures, which he would later publish as The Varieties of Religious Experience , evoked in James a sense of consternation because, as he remarked on the occasion, he was neither a theologian, nor a historian of religion, nor an anthropologist. “Psychology is the only branch of learning in which I am particularly versed,” James pleaded.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The majority of participants did not identify specific diagnostic categories as more likely to be eligible for MAiD MI-SUMC, but rather viewed the grievousness of a condition and the burden of suffering, in all its dimensions, as subjective experiences.
“The majority of participants did not identify specific diagnostic categories as more likely to be eligible for MAiD MI-SUMC, but rather viewed the grievousness of a condition and the burden of suffering, in all its dimensions [47, 53, 54], as subjective experiences.”
Cites
The Interpretation of Cultures
Fenn, R. K., & Geertz, C. (1974) · Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion · doi:10.2307/1384392 · Cited by 19,236 · see citing works
The Interpretation of Cultures
Dadze-Arthur, A. (2017) · Macat Library eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781912128310 · Cited by 16,500 · see citing works
Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity
Hamlyn, D., & Taylor, C. T. (1990) · Contemporary Sociology A Journal of Reviews · doi:10.2307/2072870 · Cited by 6,662 · see citing works
Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity
Hamlyn, D. W., & Taylor, C. (1991) · British Journal of Educational Studies · doi:10.2307/3120882 · Cited by 3,735 · see citing works
Asad, T. (1993) · doi:10.1353/book.16014 · Cited by 3,468 · see citing works
Warnock, M., Merleau-Ponty, M., & Smith, C. (1964) · The Philosophical Quarterly · doi:10.2307/2217780 · Cited by 3,172 · see citing works
Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam.
Riesebrodt, M., & Asad, T. (1994) · Contemporary Sociology A Journal of Reviews · doi:10.2307/2074333 · Cited by 2,335 · see citing works
The social origins of depression
Shapiro, M. B. (1979) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/0005-7967(79)90104-9 · Cited by 2,212 · see citing works
Religion and the Decline of Magic
Young, S., & Killick, H. (2017) · Macat Library eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781912281657 · Cited by 2,128 · see citing works
Mackey, J. P. (1963) · Philosophical Studies · doi:10.5840/philstudies19631271 · Cited by 2,060 · see citing works
Patients and Healers in the Context of Culture
Kleinman, A. (2023) · University of California Press eBooks · doi:10.2307/jj.2711689 · Cited by 1,985 · see citing works
Self-citationThe Great War and Modern Memory
SINFIELD, M. (1976) · English Journal of the English Association · doi:10.1093/english/25.122.165 · Cited by 1,658 · see citing works
The Normal and the Pathological
Kaye, H. L., Canguilhem, G., Fawcett, C. R., & Cohen, R. S. (1990) · The Journal of Interdisciplinary History · doi:10.2307/204931 · Cited by 1,595 · see citing works
On Phenomenology and Social Relations
Schütz, A., & Wagner, H. R. (1970) · University of Chicago Press eBooks · Cited by 1,470 · see citing works
The Great War and Modern Memory
Fussell, P. (2017) · The SHAFR Guide Online · doi:10.1163/2468-1733_shafr_sim100050008 · Cited by 1,294 · see citing works
Lasch, C. (2019) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9780429034879-13 · Cited by 1,293 · see citing works
The social production of indifference: exploring the symbolic roots of Western bureaucracy
(1992) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.30-1805 · Cited by 1,011 · see citing works
The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914-1991
Fukuyama, F., & Hobsbawm, E. (1995) · Foreign Affairs · doi:10.2307/20047214 · Cited by 818 · see citing works
Levi, P. (2003) · Edinburgh University Press eBooks · doi:10.1515/9781474470230-006 · Cited by 751 · see citing works
Tahitians: Mind and Experience in the Society Islands.
Milner, G. B., & Levy, R. I. (1975) · Man · doi:10.2307/2801222 · Cited by 751 · see citing works
Writing at the MarginDiscourse Between Anthropology and Medicine
Kleinman, A. (1997) · University of California Press eBooks · doi:10.1525/california/9780520209657.001.0001 · Cited by 727 · see citing works
Self-citationHolocaust testimonies: the ruins of memory
(1991) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.29-0481 · Cited by 687 · see citing works
Encounters with AgingMythologies of Menopause in Japan and North America
Lock, M. M. (1994) · University of California Press eBooks · doi:10.1525/california/9780520082212.001.0001 · Cited by 611 · see citing works
Tambiah, S. J. (1996) · University of California Press eBooks · doi:10.1525/9780520918191 · Cited by 597 · see citing works
Desjarlais, R., Eisenberg, L., Good, B. J., & Kleinman, A. (1995) · doi:10.1093/oso/9780195095401.001.0001 · Cited by 589 · see citing works
Self-citationThe Sacred Self: A Cultural Phenomenology of Charismatic Healing
Strathern, A. J., & Csordas, T. J. (1995) · Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion · doi:10.2307/1386898 · Cited by 505 · see citing works
The True and Only Heaven: Progress and Its Critics.
Bender, T., & Lasch, C. (1992) · The American Historical Review · doi:10.2307/2165855 · Cited by 481 · see citing works
Suffering and its professional transformation: toward an ethnography of interpersonal experience
Kleinman, A., & Kleinman, J. (1991) · Culture Medicine and Psychiatry · doi:10.1007/bf00046540 · Cited by 480 · see citing works
Self-citationMirrors of violence : communities, riots and survivors in South Asia
Das, V. (1992) · Oxford University Press eBooks · Cited by 457 · see citing works
The Suffering Self: Pain and Narrative Representation in the Early Christian Era
Perkins, J. (1994) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 435 · see citing works
The Appeal of Experience; The Dismay of Images: Cultural Appropriations of Suffering in Our Times
Kleinman, A., & Kleinman, J. (1998) · University of California Press eBooks · doi:10.1525/9780520353695-003 · Cited by 402 · see citing works
Self-citationEncounters with Aging: Mythologies of Menopause in Japan and North America.
Johnson, S. K., & Lock, M. M. (1994) · Monumenta Nipponica · doi:10.2307/2385458 · Cited by 396 · see citing works
Leveling crowds: ethnonationalist conflicts and collective violence in South Asia
Comerford, J. C. (1997) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.34-5403 · Cited by 380 · see citing works
Feld, S., & Fox, A. A. (1994) · Annual Review of Anthropology · doi:10.1146/annurev.an.23.100194.000325 · Cited by 374 · see citing works
Varieties of religious experience
Storace, P. (1985) · Critical Quarterly · doi:10.1111/j.1467-8705.1985.tb00797.x · Cited by 302 · see citing works
Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness
CUSACK, J. R. (1991) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/ajp.148.12.1735 · Cited by 296 · see citing works
Christ's Body: Identity, Culture and Society in Late Medieval Writings
Beckwith, S. (1993) · Cited by 284 · see citing works
&NA; (1996) · The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease · doi:10.1097/00005053-199611000-00012 · Cited by 281 · see citing works
Culture, Behavior and Personality.
Langman, L., & LeVine, R. (1974) · Contemporary Sociology A Journal of Reviews · doi:10.2307/2062876 · Cited by 251 · see citing works
de Montaigne, M., & Screech, M. A. (1958) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 245 · see citing works
Kleinman, A., & Kleinman, J. (1994) · New Literary History · doi:10.2307/469474 · Cited by 244 · see citing works
Self-citationBody and Emotion: The Aesthetics of Illness and Healing in the Nepal Himalayas
Gellner, D. N., & Desjarlais, R. (1994) · Man · doi:10.2307/2804533 · Cited by 242 · see citing works
Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness
Styron, W. (1990) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 234 · see citing works
Culture, Behavior and Personality
Levine, R. A. (2018) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9780203794067 · Cited by 233 · see citing works
Kleinman, A. (1996) · University of California Press eBooks · doi:10.1525/9780520919471 · Cited by 213 · see citing works
Self-citationWeaving the Threads of Life: The Khita Gyn-Eco-Logical Healing Cult among the Yaka
Devisch, R. (1993) · Cited by 174 · see citing works
Perkins, J. (2002) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9780203210062 · Cited by 169 · see citing works
Scheper‐Hughes, N. (2023) · University of California Press eBooks · doi:10.2307/jj.8501297 · Cited by 162 · see citing works
The Literary Guide to the Bible
Alter, R., & Kermode, F. (1987) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 147 · see citing works
Healing Sounds from the Malaysian Rainforest
Roseman, M. (1991) · University of California Press eBooks · doi:10.1525/9780520913837 · Cited by 144 · see citing works
Turner, J. (1997) · Cited by 134 · see citing works
Problems of Suffering in Religions of the World
Bowker, J. W. (1970) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9781139165587 · Cited by 128 · see citing works
Coakley, S. (2000) · Cited by 120 · see citing works
The Sacred Self: A Cultural Phenomenology of Charismatic Healing
McGuire, M. B., & Csordas, T. J. (1995) · Sociology of Religion · doi:10.2307/3711829 · Cited by 104 · see citing works
The Discovery of the Mind: The Greek Origins of European Thought
Snell, B. (1960) · Cited by 91 · see citing works
Defining rhythm: Aspects of an anthropology of rhythm
You, H. (1994) · Culture Medicine and Psychiatry · doi:10.1007/bf01379231 · Cited by 81 · see citing works
Sin and Fear: The Emergence of a Western Guilt Culture, 13th-18th Centuries
Stearns, P. N., Delumeau, J., & Nicholson, E. (1992) · The Journal of Interdisciplinary History · doi:10.2307/205500 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
On Phenomenology and Social Relations
Silverman, D. (1972) · Sociology · doi:10.1177/003803857200600241 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
The alarmed vision: social suffering and Holocaust atrocity.
Langer, L. L. (1996) · PubMed · Cited by 70 · see citing works
Visionaries: the Spanish Republic and the reign of Christ
(1996) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.34-1703 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
The Death of Satan: How Americans have Lost the Sense of Evil.
Fox, R. W., & Delbanco, A. (1997) · The American Historical Review · doi:10.2307/2171376 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
Fleming, W. J. (1955) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 54 · see citing works
Charcot, J. M., & Richer, P. (1888) · The American Journal of Psychology · doi:10.2307/1411028 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
Sin and Fear: The Emergence of a Western Guilt Culture, 13th-18th Centuries
Luehrs, R. B. (1992) · History Reviews of New Books · doi:10.1080/03612759.1992.9949711 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
Taking suffering seriously: the importance of collective human rights
(1997) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.34-3523 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
Scheler, M. (1961) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Embodied Voices: Women's Food Asceticism and the Negotiation of Identity
Lester, R. J. (1995) · Ethos · doi:10.1525/eth.1995.23.2.02a00040 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
The Normal and the Pathological
DeLisi, M. (2024) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781003399476-42 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Farmer, P. E. (1992) · Cited by 39 · see citing works
The Death of Satan: How Americans have Lost the Sense of Evil.
Fuller, R. C., & Delbanco, A. (1996) · Journal of American History · doi:10.2307/2944955 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
Max Weber: politics and the spirit of tragedy
(1997) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.34-2818 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Taking suffering seriously: the importance of collective human rights
Donnelly, J. (1997) · International Affairs · doi:10.2307/2624473 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Visionaries: The Spanish Republic and the Reign of Christ
Ringrose, D. R., & Christian, W. A. (1997) · The Journal of Interdisciplinary History · doi:10.2307/206190 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
3. Orientations 3: Core Clinical Functions and Explanatory Models
Kleinman, A. (1980) · University of California Press eBooks · doi:10.1525/9780520340848-005 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Self-citation(2017) · Bristol University Press eBooks · doi:10.2307/j.ctt1t8918b.10 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
To suffer and never to die: the concept of suffering in the cult of Padre Pio da Pietrelcina
McKevitt, C. (1991) · Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University) · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Loose Talk about Religion from William James
Bruns, G. L. (1984) · Critical Inquiry · doi:10.1086/448290 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Responsibility for Human Suffering: Awareness Participation and the Frontiers of Tort Law
Lytton, T. D. (1993) · bepress Legal Repository · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Maconick, L., Ansbro, É., Ellithy, S., Jobanputra, K., Tarawneh, M., & Roberts, B. (2020) · Conflict and Health · doi:10.1186/s13031-020-00309-6 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Bastidas-Bilbao, H., Stergiopoulos, V., van Kesteren, M. R., Stewart, D. E., Cappe, V., Gupta, M., Buchman, D. Z., Simpson, A. I. F., Castle, D., Campbell, B. H., et al. (2023) · Social Science & Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116075 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Stergiopoulos, V., Bastidas-Bilbao, H., Gupta, M., Buchman, D. Z., Stewart, D. E., Rajji, T., Simpson, A. I. F., van Kesteren, M. R., Cappe, V., Castle, D., et al. (2024) · BMC Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/s12888-024-05541-5 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
- Authors
- Kleinman, A.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Kleinman, Arthur
- ORCID
- Kleinman, Arthur
- Venue
- Harvard Theological Review
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 1997-07
- Volume
- 90
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 315-336
- ISSN
- 0017-8160 (ISSN-L)
- 1475-4517
- OpenAlex
- W2061283377
- Cited by
- 163
- References
- 78
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 28 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 2.10
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Harvard Theological Review (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Study and Philosophy of Religion
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Religious and Theological Studies
- Keywords
- William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, social suffering, subjectivity, human experience, religious experience, psychology of religion, Gifford Lectures
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
