Humiliation. Social Anatomy of a Dark Emotion
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7202/1075568arAbstract
Humiliation is both an emotional state and the social situation that produces it as well. This paper inquires into both dimensions, departing from Georg Simmel’s perspective and questions in his sociology of emotions, especially his thoughts on shame. Based on historical cases and literary examples, the paper analyzes humiliation as a composite emotional state (mixture of shame, wrath and sadness), and the distinctive features of it as a «form» of interaction. Regarding the latter, it is highlighted (a) its relational character, (b) the realization of a type of action whose purpose is degrading, (c) a representation of human value which is injured precisely by that action, and usually (d) its public character. It is warned about the main effects that humiliation may have at the subjective (resentment and thirst for revenge) and at the social level (increase of conflict, maintenance or instauration of anasymmetrical balance off orces, divisive effect and social stigmatization). In view of such negative consequences, the essay concludes by considering the main ways in which humiliation could be limited in our social life.
References
Badie B. (2017). Humiliation in International Relations: A Pathology of Contemporary International Systems. Bloomsbury: Hart Publishing.
Cantó-Mila N. (2016). «Introducción: Trabajando las emociones desde una perspectiva relacional», in: Digithum, 18, pp. 2-4.
Dostoevsky F. (20191861). Humiliated and Insulted. Richmond: Alma Books.
Elshout M., et al. (2016). «Conceptualising Humiliation», in: Cognition and Emotion, 8 (31), pp. 1581-1594.
Fanon F. (20041961). The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press.
Flam H. (2002). Soziologie der Emotionen. Konstanz: UVK.
Frevert U. (2017). Die Politik der Demütigung. Schauplätze für Macht und Ohnmacht. Frankfurt a.M.: Fischer.
Gerhards J. (1988). Soziologie der Emotionen. Fragestellungen, Systematik und Perspektiven. München: Juventa.
Gerhards J., and von Scheve Ch. (2018) «Simmels Theorie der Emotionen», in: Müller H.-P., and Reitz T. (Ed.), Simmel-Handbuch. Begriffe, Hauptwerke, Aktualität. Berlin: Suhrkamp, pp. 815-827.
Ginzburg C. (19921976). The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Goffmann E. (1961). Asylums. Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates. New York: Double Day.
Goffmann E. (1963). Stigma. Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Hartling L., and Luchetta T. (1999). «Humiliation: Assessing the Impact of Derision, Degradation and Debasement», in: Journal of Primary Prevention, 19, pp. 259-278.
Häussling R. (2018). «Wechselwirkung», in: Müller H.-P., and Reitz T. (Ed.), Simmel-Handbuch. Begriffe, Hauptwerke, Aktualität. Berlin: Suhrkamp, pp. 588-596.
Hilgendorf E. (Ed.) (2011). Menschenwürde und Demütigung. Baden-Baden: Nomos.
Hobson B. (2003). Recognition Struggles and Social Movements. Contested Identities, Agencies and Power. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Honneth A. (1995). The Struggle for Recognition: The Moral Grammar of Social Conflicts. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Honneth A. (1997). «A Society Without Humiliation?», in: European Journal of Philosophy, 5 (3), pp. 306-324.
Honneth A., and Margalit A. (2001) «Recognition», in: Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 75, pp. 111-139.
Janssen A., and Schwender C. (2015). «Würde und Demütigung, Stolz und Scham. Die emotionale Seite der Menschenwürde in den Medien», in: FSF (Hrsg.). TVDiskurs, 19 (1), pp. 54-57.
Kaufmann P., et al. (Ed.) (2011). Humiliation, Degradation, Dehumanization. Dordrecht: Springer.
Klein D. (1991). «The Humiliation Dynamic: An Overview», in: Journal of Primary Prevention, 12, pp. 93-121.
Levi P. (19871947). If This Is a Man. London: Abacus.
Levi P. (20171986). The Drowned and the Saved. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Lindner E. (2006). Making Enemies: Humiliation and International Conflict, London: Praeger Security International.
Margalit A. (1998). The Decent Society. Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Miller W. (1993). Humiliation and Other Essays on Honor, Social Discomfort and Violence. New York: Cornell University Press.
Moïsie D. (2009). La Geopolítica de las Emociones. Bogotá: Norma.
Morrison K. (1962). «Canossa: A Revision», in: Traditio, 18, pp. 121-148.
Müller H.-P., und Reitz T. (Ed.) (2018). Simmel-Handbuch. Begriffe, Hauptwerke, Aktualität. Berlin: Suhrkamp.
Neckel S. (1991). Status und Scham. Zur symbolischen Reproduktion sozialer Ungleichheit. Frankfurt a.M.: Campus.
Nietzsche F. (20041878). Human, All Too Human. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Pyyhtinen O. (2018). «Das Dritte», in: Müller H.-P., and Reitz T. (Ed.), Simmel-Handbuch. Begriffe, Hauptwerke, Aktualität. Berlin: Suhrkamp, pp. 172-177.
Renault E. (2011). «The Theory of Recognition and Critique of Institutions», in: Peterbridge D. (Ed.), Axel Honneth: Critical Essays. Leiden: Brill, pp. 207-231.
Ronson J. (2015). So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed. New York: Riverhead Books.
Roth P. (2009). The Humbling. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Sabido O. (2012). «Posfacio: La Mirada a la Religiosidad en Georg Simmel», in: Simmel G., La Religión. Barcelona: Gedisa, pp. 111-121.
Sabido O. (2019). «El Análisis Sociológico de la Vergüenza en Georg Simmel. Una Propuesta para Pensar el Carácter Performativo y Relacional de las Emociones», in: Digithum, 23, pp. 1-15.
Schaber P. (2017). «Würde als Status», in: Brandhorst M., and Weber-Guskar E. (Ed.), Menschenwürde. Berlin: Suhrkamp, pp. 45-59.
Scheler M. (20171913). Das Ressentiment im Aufbau der Moralen. Frankfurt a.M.: Klostermann.
Schütz A. (1961). Collected Papers I. The Problem of Social Reality. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
Schützeichel R. (2019). «Demütigung, Anerkennung und sozialer Tod», in: Benkel T., and Meitzler M. (Ed.), Zwischen Leben und Tod: Sozialwissenschaftliche Grenzgänge. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, pp. 243-267.
Sennett R. (2003). Respect in a World of Inequality. New York: W. W. Norton.
Simmel G. (19921908). Soziologie. Untersuchungen über die Formen der Vergesellschaftung, in: Simmel G. Georg-Simmel-Gesamtausgabe 11. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.
Simmel G. (19951912). «Die Religion», in: Simmel G. Georg-Simmel-Gesamtausgabe 10. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp, pp. 39-118.
Simmel G. (19991917). «Grundfragen der Soziologie», in: Simmel G. Georg-Simmel-Gesamtausgabe 16. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp, pp. 59-150.
Simmel G. (20001900). «Zur Psychologie der Scham», in: Simmel G. Georg-Simmel-Gesamtausgabe 1. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp, pp. 431-442.
Smith R. (2013). The Joy of Pain: Schadenfreude and the Dark Side of Human Nature. New York: Oxford University Press.
Statman D. (2000). «Humiliation, Dignity and Self-Respect», in: Philosophical Psychology, 13, pp. 523-540.
Todorov T. (2010). In Defense of the Enlightenment. London: Atlantic Books.
Vallejo C. (20121931). «Paco Yunque», in: El Tungsteno. Madrid: Montesinos, pp. 129-153.
Vernik E. (2009). Georg Simmel, Sociólogo de la Vida. Buenos Aires: Quadrata.
Watier P. (2005). Georg Simmel, Sociólogo. Buenos Aires: Nueva Visión.
Weber M. (1922). Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Tübingen: J.C.B Mohr (Paul Siebeck).
Ziemann A. (2018) «Simmels Soziologie als relationales Projekt», in: Müller H.-P., and Reitz T. (Ed.), Simmel-Handbuch. Begriffe, Hauptwerke, Aktualität. Berlin: Suhrkamp, pp. 789-799.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.
Simmel Studies is published under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence 4.0.
With the licence CC-BY, authors retain the copyright, allowing anyone to download, reuse, re-print, modify, distribute and/or copy their contribution. The work must be properly attributed to its author.
It is not necessary to ask further permissions both to author or journal board.
