Disappointment

Abstract

If friendship is regarded as a topic that has long been ignored in the academic perspective, then it is true that the dissolution of friendship can be seen as a marginal issue as well. Therefore, it is not surprising that also the condition that occurs or may occur with the dissolution of friendship, did not find attention in academic contexts: disappointment. Not only in correlation with friendship, but disappointment as a phenomenon for itself has been widely neglected, which makes Hirschman conclude, that disappointment probably would be perceived as too mundane and too common and that therefore serious academic interest would not develop (Hirschman 1984: 33). Indeed a definition of disappointment appears to be relatively simple and thus might cause less attention. Furth describes disappointment as the emotional condition caused by the discrepancy between anticipation and result (Furth 1991: 20) and further states that disappointment would be an inevitable experience, because wishes and plans would never be fulfilled completely, societies without contradictions would not exist, and ideas would always fail in practice (Furth 1991: 95-96; compare Hirschman 1984: 18; see also Hampe, Lotter 2000). The omnipresence of the condition and its simple explanation, however should not evoke the assumption that disappointment and particularly the dealing with disappointment would not be of importance.