Ressentiment As Morally Disclosive Posture? Conceptual Issues from a Psychological Point of View

Rodax, Natalie; Wrbouschek, Markus; Hametner, Katharina; Paloni, Sara; Ruck, Nora; Brixel, Leonard

doi:10.1007/s13164-021-00546-5

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Agreeing with other scholars, we identify the axis of ressentiment as victimhood (Aeschbach, 2017;Hoggett, 2018;Katsafanas, in press;Nietzsche, 1885Nietzsche, /1961Rodax et al, 2021;Ure, 2014). A powerless sense of victimhood may belong to inefficacious anger and envy where the individual feels deprived, depleted, and inferior.…”

Section: Ressentiment: a Complex Emotion Or An Emotional Mechanism?mentioning

confidence: 58%

“…The transvaluation of the self and its values allows the projection of negative emotions towards generic "all-bad'' others. However, there are several open questions about ressentiment, namely: (1) Is it a complex emotion composed of other discrete emotions (Demertzis, 2020;Rodax et al, 2021;TenHouten, 2018), an emotional mechanism, a process which transforms certain discrete emotions into others, or does it involve both? (2) Which emotions constitute the feeling of ressentiment, or drive it, and which emotions are its outcomes?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ressentiment: A Complex Emotion or an Emotional Mechanism of Psychic Defences?

Salmela

Capelos

2021

PaG

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Ressentiment is central for understanding the psychological foundations of reactionary politics, right-wing populism, Islamic fundamentalism, and radicalism. In this article we theorise ressentiment as an emotional mechanism which, reinforcing a morally superior sense of victimhood, expedites two parallel transvaluation processes: What was once desired or valued, yet unattainable, is reassessed as something undesirable and rotten, and one’s own self from being inferior, a loser, is reassessed as being noble and superior. We establish negative emotions of envy, shame, and inefficacious anger as the main triggers of ressentiment, with their associated feelings of inferiority and impotence, which target the vulnerable self. We identify the outcomes of ressentiment as other-directed negative emotions of resentment, indignation, and hatred, reinforced and validated by social sharing. We map the psychological structure of ressentiment in four stages, each employing idiosyncratic defences that depend on the ego-strength of the individual to deliver the transvaluation of the self and its values, and finally detail how social sharing consolidates the outcome emotions, values, and identities in ressentiment through shallow twinship bonds with like-minded peers. Our interdisciplinary theoretical account integrates classic philosophical scholarship of ressentiment and its contemporary proponents in philosophy and sociology, which highlight envy as the prime driver of ressentiment; it also considers the sociological approaches that focus on the repression and transmutation of shame and its social consequences, as well as the psychoanalytic scholarship on psychic defences and political psychology models on the emotionality of decision-making. We conclude the article by elaborating the political implications of ressentiment as the emotional mechanism of grievance politics.

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Section: Ressentiment: a Complex Emotion Or An Emotional Mechanism?mentioning

confidence: 58%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ressentiment: A Complex Emotion or an Emotional Mechanism of Psychic Defences?

Salmela

Capelos

2021

PaG

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“…Ressentiment is not a new term. It denotes a psychological experience introduced by Nietzsche ([1884] 1961) and studied further by Scheler (1961), and has been described as a 'cluster' of emotions (Capelos and Katsanidou 2018;Demertzis 2004Demertzis , 2006Demertzis , 2020TenHouten 2018), a compensatory defence mechanism (Salmela and Capelos 2021) or a dispositional state of being (Rodax et al 2021).…”

Section: Ressentiment As the Framework Of Understanding Misogyny In A...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Narratives of Success and Failure in Ressentiment: Assuming Victimhood and Transmuting Frustration among Young Korean Men

2023

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In this article, we examine toxic masculinity, anti-feminist, anti-globalisation, and anti-military conscription positions in the narratives of what constitutes success and failure among young South Korean men during the COVID-19 pandemic. Misogynistic accounts attributed to the globalised effects of neoliberalism and its evolution through South Korean meritocratic competition, compounded by the social isolation of the pandemic, remain a puzzle psychologically, despite their toxic emotionality. We use the analytical framework of ressentiment to consolidate references to moral victimhood, indignation, a sense of destiny, powerlessness, and transvaluation, as components of a single emotional mechanism responsible for misogynistic accounts. In an empirical plausibility probe, we analyse qualitative surveys with young South Korean men and examine the content of the far-right social sharing site Ilbe (일베) which hosts conversations of young men about success and self-improvement. Our findings show envy, shame, and inefficacious anger transvaluated into to moral victimhood, misogynistic hatred, vindictiveness against women and feminists, and anti-globalisation stances. We discuss how the content of these narratives of success and failure in ressentiment relates to the electoral win of the right-wing People Power party in March 2022 which capitalised on anti-feminist grievances. We also consider the socio-political consequences of ressentiment narratives in the highly gendered and polarised South Korean society and expand the study of ressentiment outside the context of Western democracies where it has been most extensively elaborated.

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Introduction: Toward a New Genealogy of the Phenomenological Movement

Ferran

2023

Else Voigtländer: Self, Emotion, and Sociality

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Ressentiment As Morally Disclosive Posture? Conceptual Issues from a Psychological Point of View

Cited by 7 publications

References 27 publications

Ressentiment: A Complex Emotion or an Emotional Mechanism of Psychic Defences?

Ressentiment: A Complex Emotion or an Emotional Mechanism of Psychic Defences?

Narratives of Success and Failure in Ressentiment: Assuming Victimhood and Transmuting Frustration among Young Korean Men

Introduction: Toward a New Genealogy of the Phenomenological Movement

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