"Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both" C. Wright Mills. The Sociological Imagination is fully grasped when one can separately understand the difference between private troubles and social issues. Personal troubles are an individual's own experience of a social problem, whereas social issues are related to social, culture and historical life of people. When considering abortion it greatly affects the individual and can have a variety of negative effects on the mother. When the rate of abortion increases, it can be expected that there is an issue within the society. Abortion has caused controversy and a public divide, where some feel it should be illegal whereas others feel it should be legal. In this example we can clearly see the relationship between the personal trouble and how it can become a public known issue.
The Social Imagination – The awareness of an individual and the role that one play in society as well as the influence that an individual can have on society, and the influence that society has on the individual. It is a clear and reasoned thinking. Social imagination can help achieve and develop the reason on making sense of the world and the happenings thereof. "Grasping the relationship between biography and history to the world society" – which means that it contributes to the realisation of being part of a larger social circle and the link between the personal explicit trouble to public issues. Through sociological imagination one can distinguish between trouble that occur within an individual's own circle. Personal means dealing with one's own individual personal issues, such as deciding whether abortion is the right option in one's own personal capacity and considering all the facts and consequences that come with it. This is a decision that will only have an effect on the individual itself, the farther or basically the close social group of the individual.
