Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T06:41:26.475Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

How dare you not recognize the role of my contempt? Insight from experimental psychopathology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2017

Alessandro Grecucci ,
Jon Frederickson  and
Remo Job
Alessandro Grecucci
Affiliation:
Clinical and Affective Neuroscience Lab, CLIAN, Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, 38068 (TN), Italy. alessandro.grecucci@unitn.itremo.job@unitn.ithttp://r.unitn.it/en/dipsco/clian
Jon Frederickson
Affiliation:
Washington School of Psychiatry, Washington, D.C. 20016. jf1844@gmail.com Intensive Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy Institute, ISTDP, Washington, DC 20016. http://istdpinstitute.com/
Remo Job
Affiliation:
Clinical and Affective Neuroscience Lab, CLIAN, Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, 38068 (TN), Italy. alessandro.grecucci@unitn.itremo.job@unitn.ithttp://r.unitn.it/en/dipsco/clian
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Gervais & Fessler argue that contempt is an attitude state defined as a lack of respect that potentiates the activation and deactivation of two different clusters of emotions. However, clinical and experimental findings do not support this view. We provide evidence that contempt is not an emotion, nor an attitude, but a reactive defensive mechanism evolved to help individuals avoid shame.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 40 , 2017 , e238
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Dadomo, H., Grecucci, A., Giardini, I., Ugolini, E., Carmelita, A. & Panzeri, M. (2016). Schema therapy for emotional dysregulation: Theoretical implication and clinical application. Frontiers in Psychology 7: article 1987. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01987.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Damasio, A. (1999) The feeling of what happens: Body and emotion in the making of consciousness. Harcourt Brace.Google Scholar
Frederickson, J. (2013) Co-creating change. Effective dynamic therapy techniques. Seven Leaves Press.Google Scholar
Gilligan, J. (1996) Exploring shame in special settings: A psychotherapeutic study. In: Forensic psychotherapy: Crime, psychodynamics and the offender patient. Vol. 2: Mainly practice, ed. Cordess, C. & Cox, M., pp. 475–89. Jessica Kingsley.Google Scholar
Grecucci, A., Frederickson, J. & Job, R. (2017) Editorial: Advances in emotion regulation: From neuroscience to psychotherapy. Frontiers in Psychology 8: article 985. Available at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00985/full CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grecucci, A. & Job, R. (2015) Rethinking reappraisal: Insights from affective neuroscience. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 38:e102. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X14001538 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grecucci, A., Recchia, L. & Frederickson, J. (2016) Per una metodologia della regolazione emozionale basata su principi psicodinamici [For a methodology of emotion regulation based on psychodynamic principles]. International Journal of Psychoanalysis and Education 8(2):4–13. Available at: http://www.psychoedu.org/index.php/IJPE/article/view/166/158.Google Scholar
Grecucci, A., Siugzdaite, R., Frederickson, J. & Job, R. (in preparation) Neurocognitive mechanisms of shame.Google Scholar
Grecucci, A., Theuninck, A., Frederickson, J. & Job, R. (2015) Mechanisms of social emotion regulation: From neuroscience to psychotherapy. In: Emotion regulation: Processes, cognitive effects and social consequences, ed. Bryant, M. L., pp. 57–84. Nova Science.Google Scholar
Izard, C. E. (1991) The psychology of emotions. Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kernberg, O. F. (1984) Severe personality disorders: Psychotherapeutic strategies. Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Kohut, H. (1971) The analysis of the self: A systematic approach to the psychoanalytic treatment of narcissistic personality disorders. International Universities Press.Google Scholar
LeDoux, J. (1998) The emotional brain: The mysterious underpinnings of emotional life. Simon & Schuster/Touchstone.Google Scholar
Lewis, H. B. (1971) Shame and guilt in neurosis. International Universities Press.Google ScholarPubMed
McWilliams, N. (1994) Psychoanalytic diagnosis: Understanding personality structure in the clinical process. Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Nathanson, D. L. (1994) Shame and pride: Affect, sex, and the birth of the self. W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Panksepp, J. (1998) Affective neuroscience: The foundations of human and animal emotions. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Panksepp, J. & Biven, L. (2012). The archaeology of mind: Neuroevolutionary origins of human emotions. W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Scheff, T. (1987) The role of shame in symptom formation. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Stuewig, J., Tangney, J., Heigel, C., Harty, L. & McCloskey, L. (2010) Shaming, blaming, and maiming: Functional links among the moral emotions, externalization of blame, and aggression. Journal of Research in Personality 44(1):91–102.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tangney, J. P. (1992) Situational determinants of shame and guilt in young adulthood. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 18(2):199–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tangney, J. P. & Dearing, R. (2002) Shame and guilt. Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Tangney, J. P., Mashek, D. & Stuewig, J. (2007). Working at the social-clinical community-criminology interface: The George Mason University inmate study. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 26:1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vaillant, G. E. (1992) Ego mechanisms of defense: A guide for clinicians and researchers. American Psychiatric Press.Google Scholar