TY - JOUR
T1 - Compassion in the face of terror
T2 - a case study of recognizing suffering, co-creating hope, and developing trust in a would-be school shooting
AU - Tracy, Sarah
AU - Huffman, Timothy P.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 National Communication Association.
PY - 2017/1/2
Y1 - 2017/1/2
N2 - Current theoretical conceptualizations of compassion say little about communicating compassion to people whose suffering is wrapped in a cloak of anger, threat, resistance, and fear. This article attends directly to this issue by examining the conversational particulars of compassion communicated by school bookkeeper Antoinette Tuff to would-be school shooter Michael Hill. The case serves as the basis for advancing propositions about communicating compassion to unwilling recipients and suggests the importance of careful conversational timing, face-enhancement strategies, convergence/mirroring techniques, co-creating hope, physical presence, and vulnerable self-disclosure. The case extends current conceptualizations of compassion and provides a vivid picture for enacting compassion when sufferers are angry, threatening, or resisting help.
AB - Current theoretical conceptualizations of compassion say little about communicating compassion to people whose suffering is wrapped in a cloak of anger, threat, resistance, and fear. This article attends directly to this issue by examining the conversational particulars of compassion communicated by school bookkeeper Antoinette Tuff to would-be school shooter Michael Hill. The case serves as the basis for advancing propositions about communicating compassion to unwilling recipients and suggests the importance of careful conversational timing, face-enhancement strategies, convergence/mirroring techniques, co-creating hope, physical presence, and vulnerable self-disclosure. The case extends current conceptualizations of compassion and provides a vivid picture for enacting compassion when sufferers are angry, threatening, or resisting help.
KW - Compassion
KW - discourse analysis
KW - hope
KW - school shooting
KW - social support
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84984687949&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84984687949&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/03637751.2016.1218642
DO - 10.1080/03637751.2016.1218642
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84984687949
SN - 0363-7751
VL - 84
SP - 30
EP - 53
JO - Communication Monographs
JF - Communication Monographs
IS - 1
ER -