Disgust, Delight, and In-Between

Muriel Dimen showed us how disgust and delight live around the corner from each other. Disgust is a central affect that powerfully determines human behavior, often unconsciously. Politicians have evoked the power of disgust to unite people irrationally against a purported common enemy. Disgust for bitter and sour taste is inborn. Disgust with excreta is acquired by acculturation. Many forms of disgust are overcome and transformed by sexual desire during puberty. Psychotherapists need to monitor their own disgust reactions and differentiate between their reactions of disgust and erotic fascination as well as those of their patients.