Disgust: The Gatekeeper Emotion

by Susan Beth Miller

Miller’s book is a fascinating, psychological study of disgust, an emotion that has received very little treatment in the psychology and psychotherapy literatures. It is written nontechnically and is aimed at a broad psychological and social science readership. She especially examines disgust in terms of boundary issues – how we tend to feel disgusted about things (from decaying organic matter to rotten food to ethnic attributes of people we consider alien) that lie on the border between our sense of self and nonself or between our sense of "good self" and "bad self." This is a general-interest psychological study in which the author looks at the emotion of disgust in relation to each of the sensory modalities (why are certain sights and smells "disgusting" but not certain sounds?). In the second part of the book, she broadens her inquiry and looks at the notion of disgust in terms of issues of group identity (insiders and outsiders), illness and health ("disgusting" images of illness), and even artistic creativity.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2004

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is bursting with interesting and illuminating ideas. Miller starts with an extremely provocative observation: that disgust, more than any other emotion, represents a bodily reaction to meanings that are primarily social and cultural. She then elaborates and extends the point by giving an impressive array of examples of how the disgust dynamic shapes our lives at numerous levels. I had never appreciated how deeply the dynamics of disgust penetrate every aspect ordinary life, affecting not only our reactions to food and our own bodies, but also our relationships with others, our definitions of self, and our experiences of race, social class, national identity, and patriotism. Miller brings the keen eye of the clinical psychologist to bear on a number of common experiences and current issues and shows how psychodynamic insights can give us a new and deeper perspective on things we had previously only thought we understood. This book will be a useful resource not only to psychologists and other psychotherapists but to anyone who wants to better understand the human condition.

[Susan]

I wrote it, so I won't review it...I can't figure out how to list it on my author page