Understanding emotions

Put on your science hats, people. Try to analyze, not react wholly emotionally:

Why would a person use these words to describe another group of people:

'whiny, sniveling cowards'

Here's another one for you: one person calls another, quite famous person, a "loathsome creature".

What does "loathsome" mean? What is the psychological meaning of someone using that word?

I can't imagine using those words to describe another person. What a hurtful thing to say.

I am using words that were in fact used.

But I am trying to get people to think about why someone would do that kind of thing. Beyond just reacting with alarm: why? What does it mean?

It's a learned behavior to say such a thing. They've grown up with such baloney

Those words are simple minded judgements, that involve no understanding. Those who talk that way, do not understand any thing, or any one.

I'd agree that they do not understand the natures of their own emotions. They are blocked off from that knowledge. Can we do any better in understanding those?

Anger and resentment are behind those insults. Moments of heartlessness.

negativity is never a good thing

And fear.

Yes. All quite common emotions on their own, mind you. But no good when used to hurt people or animals.

I think it is when people cannot accept and comprehend their own emotions that they may lash out at others -- thinking that those others are the causes of their discomfort.

I think ultimately you're right. But I also live in this world where people respond to provocations. Cause and effect. The other person has failed to understand there might be consequences to their actions.

I'm just talking in general terms here and not specifically about the examples you gave to begin the thread with.

Remember, name calling and personal accusations are bullying. Bullying is all about control. Those who talk that way are trying to control you.

Fear in one person may lead to lashing out, causing fear in the other person -- a vicious cycle. The cycle can be broken, but only if the fear level in at least one person is not so high that they cannot see what is happening.

But WHY do they need to do that? That is the question that interests me.

Nah. You're saying fear is the only thing behind a confrontation which is incorrect. It takes courage and principles to stand up for oneself as well, whether fear is present or not.

There you go again pinning everything on fear. It's shortsighted, false wisdom, Mr pachyderm. Here's the real remedy to the cycle you speak of, and it's a very ancient remedy, nothing new-agey about it, it's: don't **** with people.

I am discovering that a state of constant fear, of constant anxiety, sometimes that has lasted so long that you hardly are any longer aware that it exists, can affect everything you perceive about the world around you. It affects how you respond to other people. Everything.

Are you talking to me Mr pachyderm? Because I think what you just said was another generalization or maybe you're speaking for yourself only, hard to say. I suffer from social anxiety, [irrational fears] but I interact with people in a good manner, I'm liked. And I see the world as difficult, which it is, but quite marvelous as well, so I don't know how it would apply to me. Just a generalization I guess.

WHY? They do it out of anger and fear. It is a way for them to get even.

i think anxiety is the worst feeling i've ever felt, it is a sickness for me which i almost grew out of now that i'm older and on the right meds which took 30 years to get on the right ones. i am on clozapine which can be dangerous, bu ii get my bloods drawn every month to be regulated on them. before them i was a mess mentally. now i can say i can get through at least half the day without much problem some days.

I think fear underlies anger, though, if you look at it. Or maybe they are parts of the same thing.

I never found any medication which helped with my anxiety. The anxiety stemmed from real childhood experiences, which I think I perceived as threats to my life, which I could not handle. (Parents do sometimes kill their children, you know.) So no medications got to those roots.

Yes, my anxiety, and the mishandling of it by others, was the most frightening, horrible experience of my life. Not that it is entirely gone now.

Only slow learning about my own innards through mindfulness (which I developed largely on my own) has proved useful. I never got sufficient help from medications or from psychotherapists either. Few people are willing to probe enough beneath the surface appearances. Some experiences here, and from reading have been the most beneficial external factors. Along with not being treated as a menace by everyone even when they did not fully understand.

i know what you mean by being treated like a menance, as i also felt like i was a burden. no one actually said it but i could feel like one anyways.