 | People stage selves for audiences — front stage, back stage, impression management. Useful when you’s exhaustion comes from maintaining a role others applaud. Erving Goffman First published 1956 - Edition (1959) · Anchor Books · ISBN 9780385094023 |
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Key principles
- Dramaturgical model — Social life is performance — people manage impressions the way actors manage scenes.
- Front stage / back stage — Public role versus private preparation — exhaustion often comes from gap maintenance, not task load alone.
- Impression management — Audiences reward consistent character — you curate signals to preserve definition and trust.
- Team collusion — Co-performers help sustain each other’s roles — identity is relational, not solo authorship.
- Role distance — Detachment from the part you play reduces burnout — the role is instrument, not total self.
- Audience in the head — Imagined observers tighten performance before any real critic appears.
Core science
Goffman’s dramaturgical sociology — front stage, back stage, and impression management as social performance, not moral fraud. Pair with Performed identity when the mechanism map helps.