What is disgust?
Disgust is fear, and nothing more. Most often, a feeling of disgust is caused by dead animals, people, waste products and other secretions. It's not hard to see why this is the case. If we proceed from the fact that disgust is a kind of tool for protecting the body, then it should be caused by potentially dangerous objects.
Why are animal corpses and dead human bodies dangerous for us? Toxic substances contained in decaying flesh, specific microorganisms that multiply in rotting meat. Not everyone knows what “cadaveric poison” or anaerobic clostridia are, but everyone experiences a certain dislike before coming into contact with them.
A person may not be aware that there are many pathogenic bacteria in feces and other secretions, but at the same time feel a sense of disgust towards them. This is mediated through unconscious defense mechanisms designed to preserve human health and life. The gag reflex that follows disgust is needed in this context for the same thing.
Eye and eyebrow movements
As folk wisdom says, eyes are the mirror of the soul. This is truly an extremely expressive facial feature. The eyes alone are enough to show emotions such as fun, fear or anger. The eye is surrounded by numerous muscle groups. With their help, a person can, for example, open his eyelids wide, showing the entire iris. Another muscle contraction will cause the eye, on the contrary, to squint, and wrinkles will appear around it.
The eyebrows have separate, their own muscle groups. The outer and inner tips of the eyebrows are controlled by different muscles, so the eyebrows can not only rise and fall, but also take on a wave-like shape! There are also special muscles with which we bring our eyebrows together above the bridge of our nose.
The picture above shows examples of eyes (J1, J2 and J3) expressing the same emotion - joy.
The eyebrow is in a neutral position or slightly raised. It is also important that when we smile, the outer corners of the eyes squint and rise upward due to the displacement of the cheeks. By the presence of this squint, a sincere smile can be distinguished from a fake one.
Pictures A1, A2 and A3 show eyes expressing anger or disgust. The muscles above the bridge of the nose do the hard work here. They bring the eyebrows together and pull them down, thereby creating many wrinkles between the eyebrows and on the bridge of the nose. The eyes in F1, F2 and F3 express shock and fear. This is the only facial expression in which the eyelids reveal the entire iris. Depending on the shape of the eyebrows, wide open eyes can express different emotions - from surprise to horror.
Disgust in society
A natural question arises: is it normal that representatives of some professions, by virtue of their work, get rid of the feeling of disgust? For example, doctors, hairdressers, chefs, etc.
From a security standpoint, of course not. However, such professional qualities cannot be called a cure for disgust either. It is rather something akin to increased tolerance: a familiar stimulus does not activate defense mechanisms as long as it occurs to a person to the same degree.
A colorful example can be given to illustrate this pattern. A doctor working at a blood transfusion station does not react in any way to people’s blood, even if he knows for certain that the person is sick with HIV infection or hepatitis. Yes, he uses personal protection methods (gloves, masks), but even without them, blood does not cause rejection in him.
At the same time, the same doctor would not be able to swim in a pool filled with blood - he would subconsciously experience fear of contracting an infection or poisoning. The stimulus is the same, but the reaction is different.
The border between normal and disease
Extremes are always something approaching pathology. An extreme degree of disgust, as well as its complete absence, are painful conditions that significantly complicate people’s lives and put them at risk.
Mysophobia (“fear of dirt”) is excessive disgust (not disdain!). A person suffering from mysophobia washes his hands every 10-15 minutes, wipes all surfaces he comes into contact with with napkins, and, of course, never eats at guests or in public places. Any dirt causes him not just fear, but rather panic. Agree that living in such conditions is very problematic. This is a disease.
The other extreme (which, by the way, is much less common) is the lack of disgust. This condition is more dangerous than mysophobia; the risk of getting an infection or food poisoning is much higher. Both extremes mentioned are a perversion of one of the most basic human instincts - the instinct of self-preservation.
Situation 2. I’m terribly afraid of getting infected!
I didn’t even imagine that it would be so difficult to work with my disgust! As part of my job, I am constantly connected with people, but I am afraid of accidentally touching clients who come into our office, I can’t breathe when someone starts sneezing or coughing. Sometimes I barely look at a person and I shudder with disgust!..
Victoria M., Orel
Danger: The easiest thing, of course, in this case is to advise the person to change his specialty, but here’s the problem: in any job you have to communicate with people, take on those objects that their hand touched.
Solution: Make friends among doctors and, when your relationship becomes sufficiently trusting, share your problem.
Try to reduce your contact with hygiene products. Start using them according to a strict pattern. For example: you wipe your hands with a disinfectant 4 times a day, in the second half of the working day you wash your hands with soap, etc. By following this scheme, you can calm your nerves and gradually transfer your disgust simply into the category of useful hygiene habits.
Remember often the famous saying of Hippocrates: “It is not pain that kills, but our fear of it!” Indeed, how stupid it is to get sick simply out of fear of getting infected! By the way, doctors in clinics note that during a flu epidemic, only 1 in 20 becomes infected from their patients, and for other infectious diseases this figure is even lower!
We draw an illustration where the main thing is the expression of emotions
Understanding the basics opens up unlimited possibilities for character stylization. Let's go back to the beginning of the article, where we looked at the basic geometric construction. The three main figures remain unchanged, but their proportions can and should be changed! This allows you to create stylized yet believable faces.
Working with simple geometric shapes also helps control the tilt of the head in perspective. For example, we want to draw a cute character with big eyes and a round face, who tilts his head back slightly. To do this, you need to increase the size of the parallelepiped, make the half-cylinder shorter, and take into account the perspective when constructing these figures. At the next stage, we draw a skull corresponding to these proportions, and on top of it - the face itself.
To make the smile look sincere, let's raise our eyebrows and slightly cover the lower eyelid with our cheek. Notice how the stretched mouth lifts the cheek and makes it more rounded.
Nose movements
When it comes to expressing emotions, the role of the nose is underestimated. However, he is able to bring subtle but important nuances to a facial expression - if you draw it correctly, of course. Notice that in Figure N4 the nostrils extend along with the mouth. And when a person inhales deeply, they open wider than usual. This will help draw a tense facial expression, like in Figure N5. When we are angry or disgusted, we wrinkle our nose (N2 and N3).
Facial expressions with the corresponding nose: N1 - neutral, N2 - disgust, N3 - angry disgust, N4 - surprised, N5 - tense
We advise you to experiment more, mix different emotions and create unique expressions on the characters' faces. The main thing is to observe nature as much as possible! The Mirror is an essential tool for any character designer.
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“We live in such times”
FI
Of course, he wrote about people in general. It's clear.
He was lucky, he did not witness the current tragedy of the savagery of Ukraine.
Let's talk about disgust. This topic is especially relevant in today's Russia. Where did she even come from? Let us imagine a missionary in a savage's camp. He has already mastered fire and is so civilized that he eats fried meat. He greedily sends smoking pieces into the family. Either from the smoke, or from {350} a cold, his nose suddenly began to run. The savage felt an unpleasant tickling under his nose and, in order to calm this tickling, without interrupting the pleasant activity, he smeared another piece of meat under his nose and put it in his mouth. And then our missionary tries to explain to him that he is doing something wrong. He plucks a lop-eared leaf from a nearby bush, brings it closer to his own nose (the scarf is too difficult) and shows how he should have done it. The savage listens to him carefully and suddenly says with crushing reasonableness: “But this does not change the taste of fried meat!” Indeed, the missionary is forced to admit that for a savage this does not change the taste of roasted meat. Disgust is the fruit of civilization and culture. This is easily confirmed by the example of a child. A small child in a state of semi-intelligence, like a little savage, pulls into his mouth everything that comes to hand. Later, taught by the people around him, he learns the level of disgust of his time. How clearly it is that human physical disgust develops along with civilization, and what a drama of humanity that moral disgust develops much more slowly, although its very development may seem controversial to many. But I suppose that moral disgust in man developed along with religion and culture. Do we not owe more than anything else to the Gospel for the disgust we feel at betrayal? The image of Judas has become a household name. And although the flow of denunciations is still quite powerful, wouldn’t it be even more powerful if people did not shudder, likening themselves to Judas? A true work of art cannot exist without ethical tension. By reading real literature, we not only enjoy the beauty, but also involuntarily develop our moral muscles. And this, roughly speaking, is the practical benefit of culture. {351} But culture is fraught with its own tragedy. It reaches those who need it most, the broad masses of the people, slowly, too slowly. It seems that the smallest dose of culture creates a saturated solution among the people and everything else precipitates. Culture is mainly used by cultured people, and it turns out that culture devours itself. This is her tragedy. How to overcome it is a question of enormous complexity that society as a whole and the state must try to resolve. The technical development of the human mind has leapt forward, has become detached from culture and threatens humanity with death either at the hands of terrorists or at the hands of an insane dictator who has mastered atomic weapons. Or simply from the new barbarism of the permissiveness of pseudoculture, which is fed to the people by stupid books and the media and which the people are actively absorbing both because it is primitive and because it encourages base human instincts. Showing moral disgust, we must fight this pseudo-culture more mercilessly today. The situation of the people is even more dramatic than the situation of the culture itself. The peoples of the world are losing the moral norms of their traditions, developed over thousands of years, and, as I have already said, they have hardly assimilated a real universal human culture. It is no coincidence that terrorism in the world has acquired an international character. I am sure that the dashing militants played a role in this. Peoples are moving away from their folk culture and are not coming to a universal culture. To the question: “Can you read?” — one of Faulkner’s characters replies: “I can do it in print. But no.” It has long been noted that complete illiteracy is morally superior to semi-literacy. This also applies to the intelligentsia. ...In connection with the upcoming rudeness. A small example, as the leader liked to say. As far as I remember from the literature, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the word “insolence” had a negative connotation. {352} They said: “The cook was insolent. I had to send him to the stables.” Already in Dahl, of course, in connection with the development of a living language, this word has two almost opposite meanings. Boldness is extraordinary courage. Insolence is extraordinary impudence and rudeness. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the positive meaning of this word has essentially become the only one. The more rudeness won in life, the more beautiful this word looked in literature. And it is no longer possible to return its original meaning. Sometimes people, without noticing the comic effect, contrast this word with its original meaning. “Insolent, but so daring,” they sometimes say, not without admiration. Thus, the word “insolence” is a small philological victory of great rudeness.
About the author:
Magdalena Proszowska, or simply Magda Proski, is a German artist of Polish origin. Known primarily for her stylized, eye-catching portraits and illustrations. She works as a senior concept artist at the German studio Ubisoft, which is developing the building strategy The Settlers. It is noteworthy that as a digital artist, Magda is self-taught. That does not prevent her from being a guest teacher at universities of game art in Cologne and Düsseldorf.
Original article in English
Ways to deal with neglect
It is very difficult to deal with your unpleasant feelings. As a rule, such behavior begins in a child at the age of 3, when he wants to limit his “I”. That is why one person limits himself to his underwear, a toothbrush, while another uses only his computer mouse, pen. One person can easily eat food from someone else’s dishes, while another will wash the plate several times before sitting down to eat.
In order to avoid a conflict situation, psychologists recommend learning to negotiate with your partner. If you cannot eat a piece of cake in half, this is not a problem, the main thing is not to hide anything, talk openly about everything.
Today it is considered uncivil to show your disgust in society. Therefore, it is very important to monitor your facial expressions, as they indicate the emergence of a feeling of disgust:
- Don't wrinkle your nose. Quite often, when the smell is unpleasant, many people begin to tense their nose muscles, thus trying to hold their breath. From the outside it looks indecent.
- Don't curl or lift your lip. As a rule, the stronger the disgust, the more curved the lip.
- Do not turn away from an object that is unpleasant to you. Many, trying to hide their feeling, begin to gradually tilt their body back, while looking in the other direction.
So, disgust is a kind of defensive reaction that every person normally has. It’s another matter when neglect goes beyond all boundaries, the patient cannot control himself, behaves strangely, and those around him do not understand him. In this case, you cannot do without the help of a psychologist. It has long been proven that the feeling of disgust begins in childhood, so you need to carefully monitor the upbringing of your child, do not intimidate him, otherwise everything will end in chronic hostility. Learn to control yourself, try not to show your true feelings to others.
