Observations on the display and management of emotion in naturally occurring activities: the case of “Hysteria”in calls to 9-1-1

This paper focuses on a particular type of emotional display known in the vernacular as hysteria, and on the socio-logic of such an affective state. Using calls to 9-1-1 as a case study, we discuss the ways in which the notion ofhysteria' is used in a particular occupational milieu and in certain situations to assess and account for a person's conduct. In that milieu, behaviors that might be deemed hysterical are those brought to the foreground by the interactional demands of the work situation. Someone is hysterical when he or she cannot cooperate in the accomplishment of some task required by the situation (as defined by those having or assuming a responsibility for what transpires in that situation). More generally, then, what might be termed a strong expression of sorrow, distress, or grief in one social context may be hysterical in another. Thus hysteria is as much interactional and (in certain institutional or work settings) organizational as emotional.