Déformation professionnelle

The French expression Déformation professionnelle (German for 'professional distortion') is a play on words that denotes the tendency to unconsciously apply a professional or subject-related method or perspective beyond its scope. Applied to non-specialist topics or situations, this can lead to a narrow perspective, wrong judgments or socially inappropriate behavior.

The expression is a corruption of the French term Formation professionnelle for vocational training or professional education, to which it refers in an ironic way. It probably goes back to an article by the Belgian sociologist Daniel Warnotte from 1937.

Examples of professional déformation are teachers who also teach and correct privately, a police officer who sees criminals everywhere even when not on duty, or a musician who can no longer enjoy listening to music because he cannot help but analyze it professionally .

See also

• Common World Syndrome
• Labeling approach
• Professional idiot
• Law of the instrument
• Biologism

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Daniel Warnotte: bureaucratie et fonctionnarisme . Revue de l'Institut de Sociologie, 17 (1937), pp. 245-260.

Web links

• Job-related deformity ( Süddeutsche Zeitung of November 30, 2007).
• Interview with the American sociologist Richard Sennett : No life beyond work. In: Zeit Online, 4/2008 (Philipp Schwenke, Eva Weber-Guskar ).