Introduction

Scientific debates | Political uses | Art at the edge

 

Scientific debates

Surprisingly little scientific research has been done on the subject of disgust. It has been called the 'forgotten emotion of psychiatry'. Perhaps this is because it relates to social taboos. It is easy to say what we find disgusting but it is difficult, and sometimes uncomfortable, to explain why.

The first attempts to analyse why we feel disgust were made by Charles Darwin and Sigmund Freud in the late 19th century. Darwin believed that disgust was innate; Freud argued that it was learned.

This debate continues into the 21st century. Val Curtis at the London School of Hygiene believes that what we find disgusting is a consequence of evolution. What disgusts us may contaminate us or cause us to be ill — our survival may depend on us keeping our distance.

Mary Douglas, an anthropologist, argues that culture determines our disgust response. We are disgusted by things that do not match their social classifications — things that are alien or out of place.

Paul Rozin, a psychologist, believes both nature and nurture shape our disgust responses. He points out that babies are unique in not being disgusted by faeces but they do express 'distaste' — for instance to certain tastes. Rozin believes this is a nascent form of our disgust response. Distaste may be moulded into disgust.

Political uses

Disgust may protect us from contamination, but it can also be used for condemnation. History is littered with examples of powerful groups using disgust as a weapon to protect their interests and oppress others.

The Indian caste system, an ancient and entrenched example of this, organises people into a strict and inflexible hierarchy. The lowest of these groups are the Dalits or Untouchables. They carry out society's dirtiest work and are inextricably linked with waste and impurity.

Disgust has been used to incite mass murder. Hitler portrayed Jewish people as filthy, foreign bodies, contaminating the Aryan nation, like a parasitic disease feeding on a healthy body.

The language of disgust is powerful. If one group within society can identify another as dirty or disgusting, it can infer that society should rid itself of the group so that it can be cleansed, morally and ethnically.

Some political theorists say that disgust is necessary for civilisation as long as it is reined in. Democracy serves to control disgust to some extent, acting as a brake on the kind of horrific crimes that have taken place in other political systems such as Nazi Germany. However, in some cases, disgust continues to fuel hatred and violence. The Indian caste system is an example of the oppressive nature of disgust persisting within democracy. So is homophobia.

Homosexuality is depicted, usually by religious leaders, as an illness. Extremist homophobes believe that there can be no cure for the illness, that homosexuals have no place in society. David Copeland, who murdered three people in London when he placed a bomb in a gay pub in Soho, took this belief to its sickening conclusion.

Art at the edge

For many of us, 21st century life is very clean. Much of our lives is devoted to avoiding aspects of life which disgust us. The middle classes live in pristine suburbs, removed from the dirt and grime of inner cities. They avoid public transport so as not to be pressed up against strangers. They shop in supermarkets which package their food in a comfortingly sterile way, giving no hint of the abattoir it emanated from.

Modern art is one way in which society confronts the gulf between the dirty reality of our bodies and sexuality on the one hand, and our sanitised day-to-day lives on the other.

Art makes us realise that what disgusts us not only repels but also fascinates and stimulates. Works of art can force us to confront suppressed disgust. Art can remove the stigma from disgust, undermining its destructive power.

Artist Marlene Dumas paints giant canvases depicting women and men in states of sexual readiness. Her work, which addresses the complex relationship between disgust and sexuality, has been called pornographic.

Melanie Manchot also confronts our ambivalent attitudes to sex. With a hidden video camera on her chest, Manchot asks strangers to kiss her and records their reactions. Embarrassment and amusement result — but so does disgust. Manchot confronts disgust in other aspects of her work. She exhibits photographs of her ageing, naked mother, challenging the idea that beauty is the preserve of the young, slim and firm.

A more extreme examination of disgust comes from Austrian artist Hermann Nitsch. Borrowing from Freud, Nitsch argues that in order to fully embrace life, we must embrace the disgusting as well as the clean. He uses animal blood and carcasses to illustrate the point, to shocking effect.