Disgust is a condition that sometimes puts a person in a ticklish position. You may be considered a fussy person because you cannot force yourself to eat somewhere other than at home, or spoiled, because the look of hair in the washbasin makes you severely disgusted. And friends can even be seriously offended by the fact that you do not give a bite from your apple or ice cream. But you understand what is really behind such habits. We will talk about what lies behind the concept of squeamishness later in the article.
Where does squeamishness come from
Squeamishness is a feeling that, by the way, only a person possesses. From this we can conclude that it arose only due to the development of our intellect.
You have probably watched more than once that a tiny baby, crawling around the apartment, is trying to try absolutely everything that falls into his field of vision. Neither father's slippers nor the ball played by the room dog were embarrassing the baby. Only growing up and overcoming the 5-year-old age, he suddenly begins to show that very feeling, categorically refusing to drink milk with froth or turning pale and grimacing at the sight, sorry, of cat excrement in a plastic tray.
What happened Psychologists believe that in the growing and, to some extent, already forced to "survive" on their own, the body wakes up "memory", or rather, a protective reflex that came to us from distant ancestors (although, of course, aversion to certain things helps explanations of elders).
We are all from the stone age
Squeamishness and aversion to feces and all waste products are caused by the health threat lurking in them. We at a subconscious level feel that they are dangerous - and this is true, since it is in them that clostridia develops that can cause gas gangrene, cholera, dysentery, and hepatitis. Incidentally, increased disgust is inherent in those people whose immunity is weakened.
In addition, centuries of experience offers us to be careful about everything that says death. It is he who makes us frown at the sight of hair in a sink or cut nails. After all, they are also associated with something dead, torn away. Cadaveric poison is mortally dangerous for humans, and here lives a program in us that does not allow us to face it closely.
Squeamishness helps protect space
Negative emotion - squeamishness - is also a way to protect personal space. It turns out that the possibility of general eating is not acceptable for everyone.
Many people hardly tolerate the habit of friends or close people to taste a dish from their plate. And more often than not, this is not so much the caution before the bacteria that got in such a way as food, but the desire to draw a border, to have a private space, closed from the invasion of anyone.
At all times, food was considered the source of life, and joint meals were sacred in nature, indicating spiritual unity. And reluctance to eat with someone from one dish is a subconscious attempt to preserve personal space, to maintain a distance.
Why embarrassing to be squeamish now
In the Middle Ages, the problem of disgust did not stand, since it was even fashionable to manifest it. Representatives of the nobility constantly demonstrated the subtlety of their perception, wrinkling their noses or bringing fragrant handkerchiefs to them. So that the hypersensitive lady could put her foot on the road, the gentleman threw his cloak under her feet. This is a cheating! But, it turns out, no - just the concept of hygiene in those days was so primitive, and the idea of the dangers to health lurking in objects or products was so low that people in this way simply tried to save their lives.
And in our time, caution and squeamishness are synonyms of distrust in the cleanliness of your partner, which, you see, can hurt and even seriously offend. We will not publicly tell someone that he smells bad, or defiantly refuse to eat at someone else's table. Most likely, we will try to somehow get around this delicate topic. Why? Probably, because modern man is able to understand the true danger of some phenomena, and, therefore, the manifestation of disgust is no longer a vital necessity.
What does disgust look like if it is excessive
The complete absence of disgust, as well as its excessive manifestation, are extremes that approach pathology and greatly complicate a person’s life.
In psychiatry, there is the concept of misophobia - a state of excessive disgust, or rather, even fear of dirt. A person suffering from this pathology constantly washes his hands, turns his house into a sterile pressure chamber and hardly tolerates being on the street or in public places, disdaining to touch anything. Any dirt can cause a panic in such a patient.
However, no less, and even more dangerous, is the complete absence of disgust - after all, getting an infectious disease or poisoning can be very close.
As you see, fastidiousness is first of all a manifestation of the instinct of self-preservation, and any extremes in its manifestation are already a pathology.
What is social disgust
Squeamishness has a social dimension. It can include legibility and finicky in contacts with others. Outwardly, this manifests itself, as a rule, in the form of unwillingness to communicate with someone who is perceived as unworthy.
The problem of disgust in front of real dirt and the danger emanating from it, in this case, is replaced by the idea of moral impurity, and the reaction is the same - rejection. It’s not for nothing that we say: “Give him his hands,” thus denying bodily contact with those who cause moral disgust.
There have long been groups of people who are unworthy of being next to a "normal" person: lepers, excommunicated, untouchables. Representatives of certain professions — executioners, prostitutes, scavengers — were also ranked as outcasts. Contacts with them seemed dangerous, impossible, but this time not from fear of catching an infection, but from the fear of “getting infected” with failure and poverty. That is, social disgust is a protection against the possibility of becoming the same as one who is not worthy of our society.
Squeamishness is ambiguous and sometimes difficult to explain.