Tim Connor
<connort@pacificu.edu>
On Wed, 1 Nov 1995 HUFFMANS@msuvx1.memphis.edu wrote:
> In response to the last part of Marlowe's post -- he may not have been the
> first to express this, but Robert Merton discussed obliteration by
> incorporation (OBI). IN fact, the last time he addressed the American
> Sociological Association (1966, I believe, but I've lost the paper) he seemed
> bemused that the "focussed interview" he and Lasersfeld developed had been
> adopted by marketing types -- only to be rediscovered by sociologists intrigued
> by the idea of using "focus group" research. Merton found himself, therefore,
> to be a victim (so to speak) of OBI. I'm not sure if this is what's happening
> with PCP of if it's the case (as someone has suggested here) that what GAK had
> to say about the process of human be-ing is just so coherent that others are
> bound to come up with similar conclusions sooner or later.
>
> Suzanne Huffman
>
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%