The Answer to: What is Perhaps the Deepest Sickness of the Human Spirit?

• Quiz Time by Jim Duffy, 4/29/97
  
  

To understand what Tomkins had in mind when referring to “the deepest sickness of the human spirit” it is necessary to be sure to understand what a decontamination script is. A decontamination script deals with those things (e.g., barriers, conflicts, and other subjective experiences) that arouse deep disgust. Decontamination scripts function to distance the self from the contaminated self or other. Decontamination scripts may also accept the contamination. For an example of accepting contamination, the self may suffer disgust at the self and decontaminate the self of its disgust with self-acceptance. (At least this is how I understand the paragraph on decontamination scripts on page 102 of AIC III.)

Now to the next step. Anger may be attenuated (managed) by magnifying disgust in a decontamination script, e.g., “To the extent that the self can dedicate itself unambivalently to decontaminating its disgust of itself it is capable of so magnifying this type of script that previous anger is contained and attenuated.” (AIC, III, page 202) Thus, I can manage my anger if I am kept busy finding things to think and do to show myself I’m not too disgusting..

Apparently Tomkins also believed that dissmell may be found in decontamination scripts, for he claims (page 203, AIC III) that magnified dissmell can attenuate anger by distancing the self from the (stinking) other. This can work fairly well to manage anger so long as the other does in fact keep his/her distance.

Now I’m getting closer to zooming in to the deepest sickness of the human spirit. If one withdraws from the stinking others by having very little social/interpersonal contact, one may do so and succeed in the goal of seeming to have decontaminated oneself of anger, but the resulting social alienation would become more and more intolerable.

Tomkins believed such dissmell in the service of decontaminating oneself of anger may became terminal. I presume “terminal” means that it takes hold and lasts until one dies--a situation most likely to occur, observed Tomkins, in some older persons who lose friends, family, work competence, and a sense of belonging in an ever-new cultural climate of accelerating change--a state of affairs likely to elicit much distress-anguish as well as anger-rage. It is such terminal dissmell that Tomkins referred to as “perhaps the deepest sickness of the human spirit.” Remarkably Tomkins believed that such magnified dissmell could produce an alienation deeper than rage, for in rage the affect is hot and the person is still engaged with the world and still has some hope. Here we have a good word on behalf of anger-rage in comparison to dissmell scripted on behalf on decontaminating oneself of anger-rage.

Quiz complete. Hope you all found something of interest here.

....................“Civilization is a race between education and catastrophe.” Ashley Montague

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