That's Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion in The Brain and Mind

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That's Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion

Rachel Herz

Why we're reading this: A fascinating look at the most complicated and perhaps least understood of our basic emotions
[close] A fascinating look at the most complicated and perhaps least understood of our basic emotions

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May 28, 2012 Virginia MD rated it liked it

I just finished Rachel Herz's latest book. It is a comprehensive look at both neurological and the social origins of disgust.

I hope to interview her for an upcoming episode of the Brain Science Podcast. ...more

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Apr 08, 2012 Aaron Thibeault rated it really liked it

*A full executive summary of this book is available here:

At first glance it may seem like our sense of disgust is a fairly marginal and narrow aspect of our everyday experience (not to mention being a little icky), and therefore, not the most appetizing candidate for deep exploration. Nevertheless, in her new book 'That's Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion', psychologist Rachel Herz demonstrates that there are in fact several aspects of dis *A full executive summary of this book is available here:

At first glance it may seem like our sense of disgust is a fairly marginal and narrow aspect of our everyday experience (not to mention being a little icky), and therefore, not the most appetizing candidate for deep exploration. Nevertheless, in her new book 'That's Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion', psychologist Rachel Herz demonstrates that there are in fact several aspects of disgust that make it unique among the basic human emotions (which include happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise and disgust), and worthy of closer attention.

To begin with, it is clear that what disgusts us is culturally relative to a degree. For instance, while many of us enjoy the foods of other cultures (no matter what culture we are from), there are normally at least some dishes that people of other cultures eat with relish that we would not want to come anywhere near--and even the most culinarily adventurous among you have probably come across at least a few culturally specific comestibles that at least initially made you think twice.

Nevertheless, despite the fact that disgust is clearly culturally relative to a degree, there are also aspects of disgust that are universal to all human beings. To begin with, it is universal among human beings to find diseased and festering bodies disgusting, and bodily fluids such as urine, feces, vomit, mucous, phlegm, pus and blood also tend to be universally repulsive (the one notable exception here are tears--which universally elicit empathy rather than disgust).

Paradoxically, no matter what we find disgusting, there is occasionally (or at least in some of us) the inclination to expose ourselves and even indulge in what we find repulsive, such as when we slow our cars and crane our necks to catch a glimpse of any possible carnage in an automobile accident, or when we go out to enjoy a gory movie, or one that features more than its fair share of potty homour. Beyond these examples, the phenomenon of indulging in what is disgusting is taken to a whole other level with sado-masochistic sex and pornography (and particularly the variety that [bafflingly] features the presence and playful use of excrement). Even further at the extreme in this regard are serial killers such as Jeffrey Dahmer who indulge in acts that most of us are likely to think of as representing the very epitome of what is disgusting (such as mutilating a dead body, and then having sex with and eating it).

Interestingly, even aside from the physically disgusting things that Dahmer did, we are likely to think of his confining and killing his victims itself as being a disgusting act. That is, aside from experiencing physical disgust, it is also universal for humans to think of certain acts as being morally disgusting. And again, while different cultures may differ to some degree in what they consider to be morally disgusting, there are also some practices that are universal in inspiring disgust, such as incest.

How and why is it that some things are universal in inspiring disgust among us, while others are dependent on the culture in which we happened to be raised? Why is that sometimes we are drawn to what we find disgusting (and why is it that some people are more drawn to this than others)? How and why is it that disgust has both a physical and a moral dimension? These are just some of the questions that Herz explores in her new book. In answering these questions, Herz not only gives us a new understanding of our sense of disgust, but of our human nature as well.

In the course of the book, Herz does an excellent job of exploring the various aspects of our sense of disgust, and of reporting on the latest findings in the research. Her analysis of the causes of our disgust is, in my estimation, sometimes very balanced and measured, but at other times represents a bit of a stretch (such as the contentious claim that our sense of moral disgust may ultimately be understood in terms of our fear death). Nevertheless, this is my one and only criticism of a book that is otherwise very engaging, and very enlightening. And to Herz' credit, she does most often present the alternatives to her explanation of the causes behind our sense of disgust. A full executive summary of the book is available here: ...more

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