# The origin of disgust



## DJArendee (Nov 27, 2009)

What the hell is disgust? What is this emotion? What does it mean? Why do we feel it?

Think about it. Has anyone ever given you something, or shown you something looking for your approval, and what they have to offer is sickening? No?

Call me a terrible person for feeling this way, but I want to understand why I feel this way toward certain things.

I'll give some examples.

My mother is an INTJ. She recently in her midlife crisis decided to start painting.

She's not the best, but she gets the colors down, the scale, the details etc. But I can't explain it. Her paintings resemble that of old colonial paintings, you know, the ones that are completely two dimensional and flat. An example of a colonial painting is below (this painting is not one of hers, but it is similar style):










In one of her paintings of a field full of cows, the cows lack life. They lack spirit, emotions, zest. Their eyes lack souls. The pictures are flat, the trees in the background are vague speckles of color. The houses are simple solid colors etc.

But what's wierd about this picture that I absolutely can not explain is that it really pisses me off. It makes me want to die. It makes me want to scream at her, "is that the best you can fucking do?" And I feel terrible that something so innocent could bring these feelings out of me. What is it? I experience this feeling when some INFJ's ask me if the techno they're listening to is good or not. I get this feeling when the same INFJ's show me a picture they put hours into, yet it is still unimpressive. ugh, why do I feel this way?

The only explaination I can come up with is that their low Se is naive and undeveloped, and when I look at these pictures, its as if I'm viewing life through their eyes, and I have to lower my sophistication to understand them, and it pains me and makes me angry that they would do that to me, that I would have to somehow tell them something nice about a picture that is so awful.

I believe it has something to do with my secondary Se and their weak 4th Se. I've encountered INFJ's who were seriously angry at ISTP's because of our lack of ability to connect, and it brought them to the point of disgust. Could this be the same thing I feel toward their pictures? Could that be why they could possibly feel disgusted when I make an attempt to voice my undying attraction toward a female INFJ? They feel the same disgust that I feel toward their inferior paintings?

Why do I do this?


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## Linnifae (Nov 13, 2009)

I think you just answered your own question.


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## DJArendee (Nov 27, 2009)

Hmm, well I would like to know if other people ever experience similar occurrences, things that make them angry for no apparent reason.


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## Linnifae (Nov 13, 2009)

I get angry for "no apparent reason" all the time. People annoy me a lot. (It makes me wonder if I really am an ENFP) Especially as you say, people who lack skills I possess. It makes perfect sense to me.


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## DJArendee (Nov 27, 2009)

Hmm. I guess I just see no logical reasoning for it other than patience. Perhaps that's the definition of patience. But then again, who said emotions were logical?


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## vel (May 17, 2010)

you are probably right it might have to do something with inferior Se - periodically I get disgusted with people who have well-developed Ti but underdeveloped Fe because I get a sense that they treat people like objects not like human beings

N-types usually focus on atmospheres, kind of overall feeling a picture or piece of music gives - specifics of objects do not matter that much but the integrated sum of them that does - perhaps why she forgets to include detail and is not very descriptive of the objects in her paintings so they appear lifeless and unrealistic


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## alionsroar (Jun 5, 2010)

Would you still feel disgust towards the pictures if nobody asked how you felt about them?

I would have thought disgust had more to do with the judging than the perceiving functions. Maybe Fe wants to say something supporting and positive but Ti refuses to believe that that is how a good picture looks like and doesn't want to lie.

I don't know. I had to go look up the definition of disgust and it's something to do with offensive things Is it really the picture that is offensive or could it be something else? Like having to go against Ti maybe?

cognitiveprocesses.com/16types.html puts Si as our 'critical parent role' which we use to 'find weak spots' in others. Maybe it is this that is getting offended since things don't look like how we think they should look.


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## DJArendee (Nov 27, 2009)

Well no one knows I feel this way, only myself. I have to swallow it.

Perhaps the pictures make me feel restricted and chained down?


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## alionsroar (Jun 5, 2010)

I guess I don't understand why the painting is disgusting so I was wondering if it was not the picture itself but something else like 'other people seeking approval for non-masterpiece work' or 'you having to judge something' or that 'you can't reach an agreement on whether it is good or not' that is disgusting.

But I guess if the picture itself is disgusting then why? What exactly is wrong with a life-less looking cow? A house that does not look how a real house would look like? A tree that is a blog of green? How does it compare to pictures you don't find disgusting? Why does it make you feel tied down? Would it help if you were allowed to 'fix it'?


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## DJArendee (Nov 27, 2009)

Actually I just had an epiphany. I think its because I felt like it was an insult. I have standards for things that make pictures good: color, detail, items, something to explore as I look at the picture, emotions etc. But these people somehow drew a picture that didn't include ANY of these things. Its like they're telling me those things don't matter, or are pointless; and at the same time I'm not sure how to critique it well because it contains nothing I hold of value.


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## chiagirl27 (Sep 17, 2010)

It may be deeper than that. It's your mom, so there's an inherent *responsibility* for you to be respectful and supportive of her, right? She shows you something that you don't like much, but she made it and she's proud of it - so the pressure's on even more for you to not only be supportive, but to see what she sees. If this was just some jerkoff on the subway, you'd point at him and laugh... but it's your MOM.

So, you're trapped. Now, suddenly, the painting has all kinds of connotation. Not only is it aesthetically unappealing, but it also makes you uncomfortable.

It's a visceral response. It's suddenly so much uglier than it would have been if it wasn't your mom, and if you weren't trapped into a corner, having to FEEL something about a painting that you already don't like.

I've felt this before. I'd say it's pretty normal.


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## teabiscits (Jun 4, 2009)

i feel that way when i watch a badly acted, poorly thought out movie. a little piece of my soul shrivels and pus weeps out of it. the same with shit music made just to make money. and don't get me started on those dancing whores who call themselves music artists. maybe it's my Ne that is crying because those muppets just don't got no soul. it doesn't bother me that i expect perfection in the movies i watch and the music i listen to, i am proud of that and so should you be. mediocrity SHOULD piss people off.


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## chinotto (Dec 30, 2010)

Agree, I think you have an artist-type sensitivity to bad painting etc because you guys have a strong aesthetic sensibility & standards that go with it.

I know at ISTP that gets this way about clothes and people being groomed well etc. Seems like the same thing.

I'm an ENFP and things that set me off at a deep level include bad writing or other communications, bad religious services (e.g. ones that make people feel terrible about themselves or focus on B.S.), flawed arguments...


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## Noodle Dance (Sep 30, 2015)

@chinotto that would confirm the "critical parent role" mentioned above. For the ISTP the Si (the word standard says it all, since Si is the subjective "should be" version of Se), and Fe for ENFP (understanding each other, feeling positive union).

I wonder what offends other types according to this theory? I wonder what offends ENTJ/ENFJ especially.


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