Ressentiment

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

In

ego
creates an enemy to insulate themselves from culpability.

History

Ressentiment as a concept gained popularity with

On the Genealogy of Morals; see esp §§ 10–11).[3][4] Earlier it had been used by Søren Kierkegaard.[5][6][7] notably in his Two Ages: A Literary Review.[8]

The term was also studied by Max Scheler in a monograph published in 1912 and reworked a few years later.[9]

Currently of great import as a term widely used in psychology and existentialism, ressentiment is viewed as an influential force for the creation of identities, moral frameworks and value systems. However, there is debate as to what validity these resultant value systems have, and to what extent they are maladaptive and destructive.[citation needed]

Perspectives

Kierkegaard and Nietzsche

"It is a fundamental truth of human nature that man is incapable of remaining permanently on the heights, of continuing to admire anything.

individuality’." —Søren Kierkegaard, The Present Age
(Alexander Dru tr.), 1962, pp. 49–52

(T)he problem with the other origin of the “good,” of the good man, as the person of ressentiment has thought it out for himself, demands some conclusion. It is not surprising that the lambs should bear a grudge against the great birds of prey, but that is no reason for blaming the great birds of prey for taking the little lambs. And when the lambs say among themselves, "These birds of prey are evil, and he who least resembles a bird of prey, who is rather its opposite, a lamb,—should he not be good?" then there is nothing to carp with in this ideal's establishment, though the birds of prey may regard it a little mockingly, and maybe say to themselves, "We bear no grudge against them, these good lambs, we even love them: nothing is tastier than a tender lamb."
—Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality

Ressentiment is a reassignment of the pain that accompanies a sense of one's own inferiority/failure on to an external scapegoat. The ego creates the illusion of an enemy, a cause that can be "blamed" for one's own inferiority/failure. Thus, one was thwarted not by a failure in oneself, but rather by an external "evil."

According to Kierkegaard, ressentiment occurs in a "reflective, passionless age", in which the populace stifles creativity and passion in passionate individuals. Kierkegaard argues that individuals who do not conform to the masses are made scapegoats and objects of ridicule by the masses, in order to maintain status quo and to instill into the masses their own sense of superiority.

Ressentiment comes from reactiveness: the weaker someone is, the less their capability to suppress reaction.[10] According to Nietzsche, the more a person is active, strong-willed, and dynamic, the less place and time is left for contemplating all that is done to them, and their reactions (like imagining they are actually better) become less compulsive. The reaction of a strong-willed person (a "wild beast"[11]), when it happens, is ideally a short action: it is not a prolonged filling of their intellect.[12]

Another aspect according to a discussion by Stephen Mulhall, Keith Ansell-Pearson and Fiona Hughes is that after the weaker (slave) side has won out over the stronger, there is in ressentiment a general sense of disappointment that the rewards of victory are much less than was expected by the slaves. The former long-time past resentment at being a slave is perhaps increased by an inadequate outcome, leading to ressentiment.[13]

Max Scheler

See

Ressentiment in Scheler's works

Max Scheler attempted to place Nietzsche's ideas in a more sociologically articulated context. He started by considering how values are established within society and next proceeded to analyze their sharing or rejection on various grounds.[14]

Weber

Max Weber in The Sociology of Religion relates ressentiment to Judaism, an ethical salvation religion of a "pariah people." Weber defines ressentiment as "a concomitant of that particular religious ethic of the disprivileged which, in the sense expounded by Nietzsche and in direct inversion of the ancient belief, teaches that the unequal distribution of mundane goods is caused by the sinfulness and the illegality of the privileged, and that sooner or later God's wrath will overtake them."[15]

Deleuze

Gilles Deleuze significantly develops the concept of ressentiment as discussed by Nietzsche in his work Nietzsche and Philosophy. According to Deleuze, ressentiment is a reactive state of being that separates us from what we can do and reduces our power to act. He follows Nietzsche's view that the challenge for both philosophy and life is to overcome the reactive state of things and become active, thereby constantly enhancing our power to act.[16]

Girard

Further information: Violence and the Sacred

Atonement could be achieved only by moving beyond rivalry and ressentiment.[17]

See also

References

  1. ^ TenHouten W., From Ressentiment to Resentment as a Tertiary Emotion, Rev. Eur. Stud. 10 (2018) p.49-64
  2. On the Genealogy of Morals
    in Nietzsche: Basic Writings; Walter Kaufmann, tr. New York: The Modern Library, 1967.
  3. ^ "Essays". Nietzsche Circle. Archived from the original on 2013-06-28. Retrieved 2022-09-24.
  4. ^ http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Anth/AnthMore.htm [dead link]
  5. ^ Poole, Roger. Kierkegaard, University of Virginia Press, 1993, pp. 226–228.
  6. ^ Stivers, Richard. Shades of loneliness, Rowman & Little Field o, 2004, pp. 14–16.
  7. ^ Davenport, John, et al. Kierkegaard after MacIntyre, Open Court , 2001, p. 165.
  8. Hong
    's translation of Kierkegaard, see pages 81-87
  9. ^ Scheler M., Das Ressentiment im Aufbau der Moralen, 1915 (Über Ressentiment und moralisches Werturteil, 1912), engl. transl. Ressentiment, Marquette University press, 1994
  10. ^ See e.g. The Will to Power, 78.
  11. ^ On the Genealogy of Morality, 11
  12. ^ On the Genealogy of Morality, 10, last paragraph
  13. ^ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b087rt4z "Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality" on In Our Time (BBC 2017)
  14. ^ Scheler M., Ressentiment, Marquette University press, 1994
  15. ^ Weber, Max (1993). The Sociology of Religion. Boston: Beacon Press. p. 110.
  16. ^ Deleuze, Gilles (1983). Nietzsche and Philosophy. Translated by Hugh Tomlinson. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-05669-9.
  17. ^ Girard, René (1977). Violence and the Sacred. Translated by Patrick Gregory. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-1963-6.

Further reading

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