Psychology of Humiliation

[RonKD]

I'm an unclassified grad student (long story) starting a project on psychology of humiliation and don't know where to start. I don't have a particular framework so I'm quite open to reviewing writings from different traditions, be it psychoanalytic, cognitive, humanistic, or whatever. Obviously humiliation is different from shame, but that's where I started. Obviously humiliation is different from shame, but that's where I started. Humiliation seems to include shame but also relates to other concepts like pride, honor, dignity, and power (and related concepts like submission or abuse in general). Evelin Lindner is the big name in humiliation studies but she seems more interested in sociological and political aspects of the issue, for instance studying humiliation as source of terrorism, war, and genocide. In psychological literature, I only came across some psychoanalytical papers briefly discussing humiliation but alongside shame and aggression and so on, in "pathological narcissism."

Any ideas where to start? Any info on books, articles, researchers, approaches, anything, much appreciated.

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[Doctor Eliza]

Don't know that I have much to contribute.... but it would be helpful if you clarified whether you are interested in perpetrators or victims of humiliation. Also, are you trying to tie this to any particular risk factors or outcomes? Particular disorders? More specific info could help us be more helpful.

Good luck,
Dr. E

 

[RonKD]

Thank you Dr E. for your reply. I'm interested in victims of humiliation primarily. My approach is exploratory. I am interested in immediate effects and longterm results of humiliation: emotionally, cognitively, socially, etc. I'm generally interested in psychological and emotional abuse and in particular trauma. I think that humiliation is a key aspect of certain kinds of abuses that traumatize the victim. Previously I worked with the older population dealing with minors traumas but I'm interested in all age groups and given the possibility of working with some younger people in future (if all goes well), I'm also interested in humiliation and how it influences development (emotional, cognitive, social, etc), attachment with the perpetrator (e.g. a parent) and quality of future attachments, and so on. Like I said I'm just exploring various possibilities at this point, and I'm settling in here, and in the meantime trying to figure out what resources I have access to and what area of research I find most interesting, etc.

 

[MBellows]

It's not much, but your post did make me think of this.

http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html

 

[RonKD]

Thank you MBellows, I did find it helpful.

 

[Phipps]

I think, Leon Wurmser, MD wrote extensively about shame and humiliation, both many articles and books. He is psycho-dynamic/analytic oriented though. But worth checking out. You could also do a PsychINFO search, if you haven't already.

 

[Buzzwordsoldier]

FWIW, i'll be reading this paper thanks to your query...

http://www.academia.edu/490835/The_...ity_Dilemma_in_Contexts_of_Nuclear_Aspiration

 

[sockit]

Well, here are my 2 cents (probably not my own but metabolized from something or other I've read).

Shame, as I understand it, is more of a long-standing, private phenomenon. It is what is internalized after a humiliating experience, and accommodated into a self-concept.

Humiliation, I'll guess, is more of an acute response to a public act in which one or more people use personal characteristics of the victim to assert power over him/her. I see it as more of an immediate or short-term response to a time-conscribed event, than shame, which I see as an internalized feeling about one's self, deeply integrated into a self-concept. I guess that in an act of humiliation, the presence of witnesses may be important. (Maybe not necessary to initiate an act of humiliation, but probably increase its likelihood, and probably heighten the drama inherent in the action, or motivate the person doing the humiliating to make more of a show.)

Or another way to put it: one has been humiliated, and so feels shame.

What is common between them: both often involve an attack on core, vs peripheral aspects of the victim/experiencer's being - his/her body, face, skin, gender, ethnicity. Or focus on details that undermine an aspirational or actual identity. Egs of targets: a boy who displays stereotypically 'feminine' characteristics (e.g., being small or uncoordinated), or a girl who shows 'masculine' ones (having more hair on her arms than the dominant ethnic group has).

Lots of times there's a sexual dimension. Remember that the guard subjects in Zimbardo's prison experiment got into sexually sadistic postures in their efforts to humiliate the prisoners, as did the soldiers at Abu Ghraib, to their real ones. (Authors in the psychoanalytic tradition may have a lot to say about that - look at things about S&M, dominance and submission.)

Edit: also, probably, ideologies frame the act, and suggest its content (as with gender discourses -> sexual humiliation).

Edit: AND, ideologies also frame the victim's memories/interpretation of the experience. If a culture has already created a space/language for a certain kind of victimhood, someone who sees himself as that kind of victim will use those schemas to think about what he felt.

I think in psych you will have more luck with 'abuse' + 'victims' than 'humiliation', in a search. Maybe a search in/around body dysmorphic disorder, social anxiety, or sexual abuse, in particular, will help you find other definitions. Also, 'bullying'.

 

[sockit]

Thank you Dr E. for your reply. I'm interested in victims of humiliation primarily. My approach is exploratory. I am interested in immediate effects and longterm results of humiliation: emotionally, cognitively, socially, etc. I'm generally interested in psychological and emotional abuse and in particular trauma. I think that humiliation is a key aspect of certain kinds of abuses that traumatize the victim. Previously I worked with the older population dealing with minors traumas but I'm interested in all age groups and given the possibility of working with some younger people in future (if all goes well), I'm also interested in humiliation and how it influences development (emotional, cognitive, social, etc), attachment with the perpetrator (e.g. a parent) and quality of future attachments, and so on. Like I said I'm just exploring various possibilities at this point, and I'm settling in here, and in the meantime trying to figure out what resources I have access to and what area of research I find most interesting, etc.

Well, that is really quite broad. Sounds like you are starting from an intuition and have already sort of framed it in a kind of theoretical idea, but using your own language, which is going to make your literature search hard, if those ideas have already been addressed through various frameworks, and differently defined.

Maybe have a think about the particular experiences you witnessed that led to your intuition. Describe them in vignettes. Who, what, when, where. Parse what you find. What is common? What pulls your interest? How have those particular interactions, or traumatic effects, been defined so far?

Alternatively: what kind of actual work do you think you want to get into - policy or clinical interventions (are you doing clinical training now, towards a registered profession? Which department are you in?)? Take the broader analytical perspective, if you think policy will be where you'll want to go.

 

[racho]

Well, here are my 2 cents (probably not my own but metabolized from something or other I've read).

Shame, as I understand it, is more of a long-standing, private phenomenon. It is what is internalized after a humiliating experience, and accommodated into a self-concept.

Humiliation, I'll guess, is more of an acute response to a public act in which one or more people use personal characteristics of the victim to assert power over him/her. I see it as more of an immediate or short-term response to a time-conscribed event, than shame, which I see as an internalized feeling about one's self, deeply integrated into a self-concept. I guess that in an act of humiliation, the presence of witnesses may be important. (Maybe not necessary to initiate an act of humiliation, but probably increase its likelihood, and probably heighten the drama inherent in the action, or motivate the person doing the humiliating to make more of a show.)

Or another way to put it: one has been humiliated, and so feels shame.

What is common between them: both often involve an attack on core, vs peripheral aspects of the victim/experiencer's being - his/her body, face, skin, gender, ethnicity. Or focus on details that undermine an aspirational or actual identity. Egs of targets: a boy who displays stereotypically 'feminine' characteristics (e.g., being small or uncoordinated), or a girl who shows 'masculine' ones (having more hair on her arms than the dominant ethnic group has).

Lots of times there's a sexual dimension. Remember that the guard subjects in Zimbardo's prison experiment got into sexually sadistic postures in their efforts to humiliate the prisoners, as did the soldiers at Abu Ghraib, to their real ones. (Authors in the psychoanalytic tradition may have a lot to say about that - look at things about S&M, dominance and submission.)

Edit: also, probably, ideologies frame the act, and suggest its content (as with gender discourses -> sexual humiliation).

Edit: AND, ideologies also frame the victim's memories/interpretation of the experience. If a culture has already created a space/language for a certain kind of victimhood, someone who sees himself as that kind of victim will use those schemas to think about what he felt.

I think in psych you will have more luck with 'abuse' + 'victims' than 'humiliation', in a search. Maybe a search in/around body dysmorphic disorder, social anxiety, or sexual abuse, in particular, will help you find other definitions. Also, 'bullying'.

OP, the first things that came to mind for me were:

1) operational definition of humiliation (good starting point)

2) the zimbardo prison study

3) maybe learned helplessness studies

4) trauma literature (abuse victims: dv, Holocaust survivors, wars, child abuse, etc)

5) I would think that you may find more info with the keyword "shame" (I suspect you will find primarily theoretical articles on this in developmental psych and psychoanalytic psych) or other keywords like "abuse" "victim" etc.

6) if you would like to read a non academic book of a personal/autobiographical story of one of the worst documented cases of child abuse in California, "a child called it" is a quick, easy and interesting read (author is david pelzer if I recall correctly).

7) your study, qualitative or quantitative design? (so far it seems like the qual would be appropriate).

I echo what the previous posters wrote/suggested as well.

My advisor recommended to structure my lit review in chronological order starting from the oldest studies to newest, whiche helped keep ot focused. It sounds like you are still exploring your topic though?

I hope this helps. Good luck to you.

Sent from my cell. Please excuse any typos.

 

[MBellows]

A far more simple differentiation.

Shame, is internal.

Humiliation, is external.