John Lande (University of Missouri School of Law) has posted Tales of Five Women on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
This article uses memoirs by and/or about five women to illustrate common patterns of conflict. It builds on Felstiner, Abel, and Sarat’s classic article, Naming, Blaming, and Claiming, describing the genesis of disputes. Their framework describes how people develop “perceived injurious experiences” (PIEs), some of which become grievances (when they blame others), some of which become claims (when they demand satisfaction), and eventually disputes (when their demands aren’t fully satisfied). Only a small proportion of disputes involve lawyers or become lawsuits. Most of the time, people experience life as normal – not perceiving that they have injurious experiences, which Felstiner, Abel, and Sarat called “unPIEs,” – until something causes them to perceive that they have a problem.
This article describes a great variety of PIEs and strategies for dealing with them. Sometimes there is no individual to blame, and other times people have grievances against specific individuals. Most of the time, people use a wide assortment of strategies that usually don’t involve the law, lawyers, or courts. For example, people often deal with distress by using non-legal tactics such as “retail therapy” and humor. This article provides a rich understanding of how people experience and deal with their troubles.
The books analyzed in this article are Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History, by Lea Ypi; You’ll Grow Out of It and the sequel, I'll Show Myself Out: Essays on Midlife and Motherhood, by Jessi Klein; These Precious Days: Essays, by Ann Patchett; Tasha: A Son’s Memoir, by Brian Morton; and Lost & Found: Reflections on Grief, Gratitude, and Happiness, by Kathryn Schulz.
