A friend gave me the audiotapes of Blink, the Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcomb Gladwell. Gladwell reviews the research of Paul Ekman, beginning with Ekman's teacher Silvan Tomkins.
Tomkins was said to have the capacity to look at faces and describe moods to a level that appeared to be mind reading. Ekman lacked the innate ability, but broke the face down into a measurable coding system.
Now there is a certification in the reading of faces. After a five day workshop and 45 hours of study, applicants are eligible for a test to be certified as a FACS coder. The advertisement for the workshop says, traditionally, the information is learned with 100 hours of self-study of the 500 page FACS manual.
This study seems to largely be the realm of clinical psychologists. Gladwell describes the use of the system to quickly judge couples to see who will stay married. The single most important factor in judging the relationship is the expression of contempt.
Darwin describes the emotion in The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals: Scorn and disdain can hardly be distinguished from contempt, excepting that they imply a rather more angry frame of mind. Nor can they be clearly distinguished from the feelings discussed in the last chapter under the terms of sneering and defiance.... Nevertheless, extreme contempt, or as it is often called loathing contempt, hardly differs from disgust."
Darwin describes how contempt is shown: The most common method of expressing contempt is by movements about the nose, or round the mouth....
The artist Faigin describes "disdain," which Darwin views as angry contempt. Disdain is expressed in the mouth. The upper lip is raised and flattened in a sneer-- the lip is squared-off in shape. Slight sneer is often asymmetrical with one half of the upper lip active and the other half relaxed. The lower lip is neutral. The signature wrinkle is the nasolabial fold (deepest alongside the nose). The eyebrows and eyes are relaxed.
Contempt is a seventh emotion that Ekman recognized as a universal emotion after developing the original six: anger, fear, disgust, happiness, sadness, surprise. The contempt expression is expressed in FACS terms is still being debated by the researchers. They seem to agree it includes AU 12 and 14, but the issue is whether AU 10 is also included. AU 12 is the common smile expressed with the zygomatic major. AU 14 dimples the cheeks with the buccinator muscle. These alone look a lot a smile. Adding AU 10 which uses the levator labii superioris to raise the upper lip, is the quick change in the smile that shows contempt.
Contempt can be largely masked except for a fleeting lapse into the hostility exhibited with the raising of the upper lip. The psychologists film the expressions and then slow them down in able to spot and measure AU 10.
If it is true that contempt is the measure of why relationships fail, this is a valuable fact for making our ways through this hard life.
One of my philosophy teachers in college at UT was Robert Solomon. He wrote a book called Emotions and the Meaning of Life in which he defines contempt as the last of a continuum of resentment and anger. According to Solomon the differences between the three emotions are that:
1. Resentment is directed toward a higher status individual.This would give a suggestion that the reason marriages fail (as signaled by the expression of contempt) is that one of the partners believes the other is a lower status individual.
2. Anger is directed toward an equal status individual.
3. Contempt is directed toward a lower status individual.
David Hume compares respect and contempt (click the title). Contempt arises when we do not merely observe the "qualities and circumstances" of others, but we "make a comparison betwixt them and our own qualities and circumstances."
Hobbes says "Contempt is when a man thinks another of little worth in comparison to himself."
Built into contempt, then, is the need to not merely observe, but pass judgment on others.
The inferior position implied by contempt is described by Edmund in King Lear:
I will preserve myself: and am bethought
To take the basest and most poorest shape
That ever penury, in contempt of man,
Brought near to beast: my face I'll grime with filth;
Blanket my loins: elf all my hair in knots;
And with presented nakedness out-face
The winds and persecutions of the sky.
_-_Dante_And_Virgil_In_Hell_(1850).jpg)
2 comments:
If believing that one is of a higher status is key in defining contempt then who defines higher/lower status? Are there "universally accepted" guidelines that anyone can look to and say: "I'm definitely (or not )of higher status than him therefore I can have contempt for him, whether he likes it or not." I don't believe there's such a thing as a Contempt Registry so I'm assuming that when we're using higher status we're speaking about a "universally accepted" (everybody knows kind of thing) definition where they "belong" (I can hear the brittle limb cracking under the weight of my bullshit). I point this out because I read your blog for the first time a couple of days ago and I was sopping up the stuff on death and emotions and, of course, contempt. Then yesterday I'm catching up to my NYT and in the Book Review I read a review on "A VOYAGE LONG AND STRANGE" and they mention the feelings that the Dominicans had for the Spaniards and it mentioned "inverted scorn- part envy, part outrage, part sorrow- that the conquered had always felt for their conquerors. Indeed, contempt for the explorers, whether Spanish or English, is now the common default position." It made a quick link to your mentioning of contempt then I asked myself: How is it possible that Dominicans believe they are of a higher status? The river branches in four streams. (1) The reviewer used the word loosely (2) contempt ignores most components of "higher status" definition: Money, power, social status, health, money, more power, etc. (3) the Dominicans are fucked up in the head (not far fetched if you've run into the honey at old Whitmans place downtown) or (4) You're full of shit (likely). Point is I wouldn't have had this interesting discussion in my head had I not bumped into your penetrating pensees.
Dr. Ana Neimaus
Dear Dr. Neimaus,
Thank you for your comment.
I have heard number 4 (I'm full of shit) enough that it carries the ring of truth. If I get a vote, I'd also like to vote for number 2 (contempt ignores most components of higher status definition). I have long been able to feel myself of a higher status than someone else despite all of the evidence to the contrary (money, power, social status, health, money, more power, etc.) As you might imagine this has led to serious mistakes on my part that have led to less money, power, social status, health, money, power, etc.
Because I recognize this, I will try leave contempt behind me and concentrate on only feeling anger and resentment in the future.
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