Sociological Imagination: Interpretation of Private Concerns and Public Issues

To understand the world in which we live in, we first need to gain a broader scope of ourselves and comprehend the structured thinking and behavioural patterns affected in society. Sociological imagination was first developed by C. Wright Mill in the 1950’s to help “the awareness of relationships between personal experience and wider society.” While individuals think their troubles are specific to them, sociology looks at the social patterning of a larger scale in society.

'Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both.' was Mill’s way of understanding the link between personal difficulties and larger social issues. This means to tell us how individuals need to alter their perspective rather than just looking through the tunnel of their own crisis. Mills wants to inspire society to not keep their situations locked away in a jar but rather yet to open them and view them as a potential broader issue amongst society. Through C. Wright Mills' interpretation of private troubles and public issues, the relationship between the two is very similar. Most private concerns arise from public issues whether or not individuals are aware of that.

Personal troubles are what an individual may feel is their own experience caused by their behaviour or failures which may result in them typically blaming themselves for their struggle. Public issues are what society is facing as a majority due to the social structure and culture of society, which is reflected as a social issue affecting many individuals. An example of private troubles vs public issues is a couple may be experiencing financial difficulty with young children, house repayments or other financial demands, but yet feel that this is a personal issue as it is their own affairs. Whereas the economy may be in a financial crisis as a whole, and yet we rather blame the victim than blaming the system. 

A close friend of mine a few years ago was diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa due to being bulimic for many years during adolescence. This caused a lot of mental health concerns and lowered her self-esteem drastically when she started using social media. I believe that the public issue here, is the demand on young females bodies to be at a particular cultural standard due to the belief’s on how women should look to be appreciated. Adolescence suffering from eating disorders may feel isolated and that this is their own battle, but yet society’s pressure on cultural body standards are to blame. Not only is it young women who feel they need to be as curvaceous as a Kardashian, but also men may feel they need to be in shape with chiseled bodies to make them look more appealing to young women. With our society becoming more open to sexuality and gender/transgender, the expectation to ‘fit in’ is so much higher due the amount of likes you’ll receive on a photo. This pressure that society is creating is causing harmful effects to young generations resulting in another public issue of suicide. Through Emile Durkhiem study of suicide, his results of Anomic suicide help us to identify if an individual feel disconnected from society due to a feeling of not belonging, this shows us that the private trouble of one feeling suicidal is actually a public issue felt by many. 

To conclude the essay, there are many difficult social issues we all face. We feel that they are our own burden but yet upon society it’s a much larger scale of impact. Through sociological imagination it provides framework to help us understand the world in which we live in, with public concerns shaping our generation. It is rare to find a unique individual who can be dimmed by unemployment, marriage or education and suffering by themselves, when if not millions of others are experiencing the same affect.