Abstract

To talk about stress in the context of crises or challenges is at first glance rather trivial. Yet, a differentiation of the concept of stress from medical-psychological brain-research can be informative. According to this, toxic stress can be conceptually framed as a situation in which an insecurity regarding core expectations cannot be permanently resolved by learning, as is the case in adaptive stress. Such toxic stress leads to a constellation in which the successful stabilisation of a certain structure of expectations endangers the system’s capacity of self-irritability. This concept benefits the analysis of the social as it allows us to consider the possibility of damaging effects of the stabilisation of social expectations: Referring to Goffman’s studies on the handling of double-bind situations, we develop the concept of the toxic double-bind. We then switch to the level of society and inquire about the core expectations of society as well as its mode of handling irritations. Finally, these considerations are connected, and perspectives for a sociological research of toxic stress of society are presented.