Recovering Emotion from Emotion Management

This article develops Hochschild’s (1975, 1979, 1983) notion of emotion and emotion management/emotional labour through a critical analysis of her ‘new social theory of emotion’ as laid out in Appendix A of The Managed Heart (1983). The article suggests that Hochschild’s theory conceptually limits the interactive, relational nature of emotion (Burkitt, 1997, 2002) and prioritizes external social factors at the expense of unconscious ones. Drawing on empirical research (including 14 months of participant observation, audio diaries and semi-structured interviews) examining emotion and emotional labour among nurses, I develop Hochschild’s theory to include both its relational and unconscious aspects. This article attempts to begin the process of recovering emotion by identifying hidden unconscious emotion processes from its management.