Individualism and Emotion in Modern Western Culture

The chapter draws on recent research on the history of emotions and explores the various ways in which a new valuation of individualism affected emotional formulations, beginning in the late eighteenth century and extending through to the twentieth century. The chapter focuses on the nature of the new emphasis on cultural individualism, including the complicated relationship with earlier signs of Western individualism, such as the Renaissance and Protestantism. The chapter analyses the history of Western individualism in relation to changing standards for emotion, both to move past mere generalization and to link the wider cultural history to the growing field of inquiry into emotional norms and experiences.