C. Wright Mills: A Social Analysis

A lot of us go through personal challenges in our lives, but we often neglect the fact that our “personal” issues could be linked to a bigger social issue. We hardly ever look into the social context of our problem and ask ourselves why certain things happen to us and why we think a certain way. In life we must always try to step outside the box and examine a given situation in the eyes of another. Sociologist C. Wright Mills tells us that we must expose ourselves to sociological imagination, which is the ability to link someone’s personal struggles and success to the world around them and to observe what social factors might affect them. Sociological imagination is the ability to get rid of the familiar routines and look at something as

Growing up I had a stutter, it was really hard for me to do public presentations in school. Sometimes my anxiety catches up to me because I get embarrassed and frustrated when attempting to give my opinion in a group conversation. I grew in a society when depression and anxiety wasn’t really a problem. The environment I was brought up in thought just because you couldn’t see an illness it didn’t exist. When I would tell my friends, teachers or family about my depression and anxiety they would often tell me that many people struggle with it and that it will go away. Many people would try to convince me on why I shouldn’t be depressed because of all the good things I have around. I soon thought that there was something wrong with me because I felt this way and I had no control over it. I started to ignore the fact that I was struggling but as years went by I realized everything got worse- my stuttering, anxiety and depression.
Now in society the stigma for depression has died down and there is more openness when it comes to depression and anxiety which helps me seek help. It helps me accept the fact that I have this illness. I am more aware that I am not the only one suffering and that many others are also suffering which connect to what Mill states, “The individual and the social are inextricably linked and we cannot fully understand one without the other.” I am now getting better and seeking