The idea of social imagination was developed by C. Wright Mills to give a systematic overview on understanding the social world that is beyond the human common sense and understanding, which is always limited because of a constricted social experience. Mills provided the needed insights into the lives of society members. He described the lack of social understanding as, “Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both.” The theory of social imagination helps in giving the necessary connection between more significant social issues and the challenges faced by individuals within the society. Mills theory enables individuals to understand the relationship between their respective lives and the events that are taking place in society. In short, such a mindset gives individuals the ability to realize the link between their personal experience and the society in which they live their lives. Mills differentiated these problems as personal troubles and social issue.
Personal troubles
These are individual issues that are experienced by an individual and the range of their immediate relations with other people. Mills stated that people function as key role players who make choices on their friends, work, school and acquittances, among other issues that are within their control. Therefore, to some extent, individuals have some ability to influence the outcome of the various problems within their levels. For example, a college student who does not attend their classes regularly and chooses to party five nights in a week is likely to interfere with their odds of success in college.
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Social issues
These are issues that are beyond the personal control of one person. These issues are multifaceted and are majorly rooted within a society rather than in an individual. For example, currently, 71% of youths in schools are addicted to non-educational materials on the internet such as social media, adult content and non-educative sites. Whereas most people would imagine that teenagers should be preparing for their future, their current behavior portrays otherwise. Therefore, this essay will assess the application of social imagination on personal experiences, using a case study of a situation that happened in my life.
Personal Experience
My situation is coping with the recent death of my maternal grandmother.
Background information
My mother was taking care of my grandmother for about ten years here in Florida but sent her with her sister to be taken care of in Ohio in 2004 since my aunt was retired and had more time. A year later, my aunt passed away, so my grandmother had to be placed in a nursing home. My deceased uncle's wife took guardianship of my grandmother but refused to give my mother any information on what nursing home she was in (as a result of a previous family feud between my uncle and my mother). My uncle's wife caved and called to tell my mother information on my grandmothers' whereabouts in June of 2019 due to her increasing health issues (and reaching near death). My mother, however, refused to see my grandmother due to her having dementia and she did not want to see her mother in a diminished state (as my grandmother wouldn’t remember her). About a month ago, my mother got the call that my grandmother was on her death bed due to pneumonia. My mother flew straight to Ohio and spent the last few days of my grandmother's life with her, as well as watched her take her last breath. Now my mother is having a hard time coping with her passing due to guilt as well as I am due to not being able to see my grandmother. We are both struggling and have feelings of resentment and the stages of guilt associated with the loss of a loved one.
Application of Social imagination
In the current civilization, most people are socialized to partake some practices, and not to undertake others. Whether socialized in a religious or secular background, its common element that everyone fears death (both the death of an individual and the death of a close family member). The fear of death originates by the fact that both religious and social theories cannot conclusively explain the process of death and what happens after death. For Judeo-Christian believers, death is a passage to eternal life; although this is only guaranteed for the “righteous,” for atheists and non-believers, death is the end of life. A common belief, however, is that family member sought to treat their loved ones with care before they die, and even give them their last respect before they die. Failure to give your best to a dying family member might lead to feeling guilty and a sense of self-blame. According to a study conducted by Thompson, Allan, Carverhill, Cox, Davies, Doka, & Small, N. (2016) 85% of Americans at one time in their life-time experienced stress/ depression due to the loss of a loved one. Most of the people affected most are females. The same study also revealed that out of the respondent sampled, 64% reported severe depression, feelings of guilt and self-blame because they thought that they did not give all their efforts, time, and money to the treatment of the lost person. 89% of these respondents felt that if they had dedicated the necessary resources selflessly, they would have prevented the death of the person in question.
In some cases, people can prolong the lives of their loved ones by providing the necessary resources. However, Gray, Geraghty, & Ralph (2017) contends that in the case of chronic situations, or old age, there is nothing much people can always do to save the lives of their live ones. For example, if one wants to take care of a sick person, they will have to either resign from work or in some cases they will have to abandon their source of income to take care of the person. In such a case, the family will run into financial problems due to the fact that they do not have a source of income. On the other hand, if one continues to work to provide for the sick person, they will not have enough time to monitor or care for the sick personally. Therefore, in either way, there is no possibility of a person taking comprehensive care of a sick family member. Therefore, people should understand that death is a natural process, and no one can prevent it from happening since no man is immortal. Hence, family members should always ask themselves, if they did their best towards enhancing the lives of the dead while they were still alive, rather than relenting to self-pity, depression and self-blame after death because in either way death is inevitable.
References
Gray, J., Geraghty, R., & Ralph, D. (2017). Introduction: Irish families in the sociological imagination. In Family rhythms . Manchester University Press.
Thompson, N., Allan, J., Carverhill, P. A., Cox, G. R., Davies, B., Doka, K., ... & Small, N. (2016). The case for sociology of dying, death, and bereavement. Death Studies , 40 (3), 172-181.
