Thursday, October 8, 2009

12 Stages of Disgust

A friend who is growing disenchanted with his job asked me if I could name the 12 levels of Disgust. This led to an earnest effort on our part to arrive at descriptors for 12 levels of Disgust, followed by a corresponding 12 levels of Catharsis. I kind of imagine that these lists might live in some hazy psycho-social universe between the Stages of Grief and the 12 Steps of Recovery. An English colleague mentioned that it made him think of Dante's Levels of Hell. Enjoy - and feel free to suggest amendments.

(Disclaimer: this is a free-floating vocabulary exercise, and any resemblance to any responsible theoretical or research framework is purely accidental.)


12 Levels of Disgust

  1. Mild Distaste
  2. Strong Distaste
  3. Medium Dislike
  4. Full Dislike
  5. Medium Aversion
  6. Strong Aversion
  7. Mild Disgust
  8. Strong Disgust
  9. Full Repulsion
  10. Overwhelming Revulsion
  11. Inability to be in the same room
  12. Urge to violence
12 Levels of Catharsis
  1. gentle exhale
  2. sigh
  3. mild gesture, such as a shake of the head
  4. stronger gesture, such as rolling the eyes, or the classic shrug of arms and shoulders together with the palms raising
  5. a polite but honest expression of disappointment
  6. a focused, articulate complaint
  7. a brief and controlled rant
  8. a full expression of frustration
  9. an actual repudiation
  10. a calm refusal to engage
  11. a forceful refusal to engage
  12. no longer having any awareness of the previously offending party or issue

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