Abstract

There appears to be a paradox at the heart of the psychology of partisan sport fandom. Fans regularly relish the prospect of or retrospect fondly upon a tough contest, yet during the contest they want to get out of sight as quickly as possible. The essay tries to explain why the paradox cannot be adequately or usefully understood as a mere conflict of desires or clash between purism and partisanship or the sequential form often taken by meaningful sport. Instead, four partially intersecting explanatory themes are identified and unpacked: self-understanding, self-affirmation and self-celebration; the significance of the narrative; Hegel, reinterpretation, necessity, and redemption; and volitional and affective dissonance. The themes play host to the notions of Rawlsian reflective equilibrium, the plurality of life-values in a self-enclosed domain, and the fusion of the Apollonian and Dionysian. The last theme (volitional and affective dissonance) might mean that, however profitable the others, the partisan sport fan typically has an irreducible clash of standpoints.