I'm Glad You Mentioned That

• Surprise-Startle, The Macho Script and Nothing by Jim Duffy, 10/12/97
  • Contempt in the Macho Script by Don Nathanson, 10/15/97
    
    

Don, I'm glad you called attention to the presence of contempt in callous disregard because I have found myself pondering that dissmell and anger are often a part of this disregard. Still I am rather fascinated by the Mosher-Tomkins notion that surprise-startle is a natural reaction to callous disregard of another's fear-distress--in fact, I would say I was indeed surprised when I read their statement on this point but also recognized from my own experience the accuracy of their observation.

I understand the contempt you refer to in callous disregard and I recognize the surprise-startle that Mosher and Tomkins refer to. Thus, I am led to wonder whether treating others with contemptuous disregard of their fear or distress is a powerful activator of surprise-startle in part because it also activates more distress as well as shame in the contempt recipient who may have been anticipating some measure of enjoyable understanding. I'm thinking "out loud" here, grateful for the opportunity to deepen my involvemnt in the intricacies of Affect Theory.

Thank you, Don, for a reply that enriches my understanding and that especially helps me become more aware of the importance of contempt in the macho script. I think the Mosher-Tomkins article is an extraordinarily valuable piece of creativity, and since I've been studying it carefully,I have found myself also thinking often of how much this script exists with varying degress of power, as you noted, and, as Mosher-Tomkins noted, in various forms depending on the social or professional groups one looks at. It is, that is, certainly not just an ideology for football players or for men who prodly display tatoos on their biceps. I can recognize aspects of the macho script in myself and in an arena I know best, the academic world.

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