Abstract
It was August 2005. Ted Sarbin was introduced to a packed auditorium at the conclusion of an American Psychological Association (APA) symposium on narrative psychology, held in Washington, DC. Kenneth Gergen chaired the session. Gergen had dedicated the symposium to Sarbin. It featured four presentations, followed by Sarbin’s commentary and discussion. He spoke incisively and appreciatively of the four presented papers and then concluded by remarking that even though he had more to say, he found himself to be out of breath. The audience, perhaps sensing that these were his final public words, rewarded him with a standing ovation. At the time, he had been an active member of APA for over 66 years—a record at that time. And those were, in fact, his final public words.
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Notes
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It is said that everyone who knew him has a favorite Goffman story—often highlighting Goffman’s distinctive manner of managing his own impression. Ted several times told a story of inviting Goffman to the Sarbin home for a dinner party. When Goffman arrived at the door and was shown in, he immediately asked for a tour of the house—just to look around. But he asked that he be allowed to do this on his own, without the host or his wife as a guide. He was granted permission for the solitary tour.
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The original members of the Tuesday Morning Group were Vernon Allen, Rolf Kroger, Karl Scheibe , Milton Anderson, Eldred Rutherford, Kenneth Craik, and Robert Sullivan. All received their Ph.D. in psychology at UC Berkeley. Karl Scheibe and Milton Anderson are the only two surviving members at this time.
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Here is an account, from his son, Ted, of the decision point for the job offer from Wesleyan. “When he was in Connecticut he was walking Pierre, the French poodle that they had adopted. The day was cold and there was snow and ice on the sidewalk. Pierre pulled on the leash towards the back and Ted slipped and fell on his back. While in that position, looking up at the gray sky, he decided to accept the position at Santa Cruz. A man in a car saw him fall and stopped to help him get up. He wasn’t injured in the fall, but knew better where he was heading.”
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Scheibe, K.E., Barrett, F.J. (2017). A Sketch of Theodore R. Sarbin’s Life. In: The Storied Nature of Human Life. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48790-8_1
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