Dark Emotions is a book about a range of emotional experiences that are often regarded or characterized as 'negative', 'disturbing' or 'dark' as contrasted with emotions that are 'positive', pleasant' or 'light'.

Michael Hviid Jacobsen is Professor of Sociology at Aalborg University, Denmark. His research focuses on emotions, death and dying, palliative care, crime, literary sociology, social theory, qualitative research methodology and utopia/ nostalgia.

Preface and acknowledgements

Contributors

Introduction The darkness within and without

- Exploring dark emotions in contemporary culture and everyday life

Michael Hviid Jacobsen

Chapter 1 Disappointment

- When things turn out wrong or worse than wanted

Michael Hviid Jacobsen

Chapter 2 Regret

- In the crossroads of individuality, responsibility and agency

Maria Madalena d'Avelar

Chapter 3 Worry

- Friend or foe?

Kate Sweeny and Olivia T. Karaman

Chapter 4 Vulnerability

- A restricting and enabling emotion

Barbara A. Misztal

Chapter 5 Resentment

- A complex socialmoral and political emotion

Maria F. Gritsch and Warren D. TenHouten

Chapter 6 Hate

- A social functional theory of group-based hate

Agneta H. Fischer

Chapter 7 Betrayal

- Towards a sociology of treachery

Malin Åkerström

Chapter 8 Panic

- Fight or flight in a culture of fear?

Michael Hviid Jacobsen and Peter Clement Lund

Chapter 9 Paranoia

- From a personality disorder to a sociological phenomenon

Stef Aupers and Kamile Grusauskaite

Chapter 10 Melancholy

- What is it and what is it good for?

Mathea Slåttholm Sagdahl

Chapter 11 Apathy

- Is a lack of feeling our default condition?

Anna Zhelnina

Chapter 12 Alienation

- From classical to contemporary critical perspectives

Michael Hviid Jacobsen and Warren D. TenHouten

Index