Using Disgust

jgnat

Another poster saw a flash of ...disgust.... from a loved-one, and pondered the implications. Good catch. Disgust is an interesting emotion and it is linked to all sorts of behavior. http://people.stern.nyu.edu/jhaidt/disgustscale.html

The WTS uses disgust of course, to insulate its members from disconfirming information. Can anyone say dirty lolly?

Dirty Lolly

I welcome your observations on how the WTS uses the emotion of disgust to control it's members. How does a person overcome an initial reaction of disgust? How could you convince another person that you, as a human being, are not disgusting? Where do you rate on the disgust scale?

tim hooper

Maybe some disgust is learned but does not serve us well. I once observed 2 witnesses noisily recoiling at a hotplate of black sausage in a self-service restaurant. Other diners served themselves quite happily.

Yet again a natural disgust, say a reaction to contaminated food, can protect us from harm.

problemaddict

Well the branch is very direct in saying what needs to be disgusting. With Satan in opposition to God.....you are certainly to "loathe" Satan. But then comes the equating of apostates which are narrowly defined, as tantamount to Satans cronies and the people whom he uses to get your goat. So by the transative properties of disgust......you are now disgusting.

Blood has also been a succesful thing they have found "disgust" in.

nonjwspouse

This seems to relate to the therapy my husband is now being given for a bad habit he wants to break. He is told to stand in a cold shower each time he is tempted. He is being taught thought stopping/disgust techniquies. Not postive reward, but negative. This disturbs me greatly since this resembles the mental negative reward technique/reinforcement used by the JW.

Sigh..... will this yoyo ever end?

I get so confused, hearing what I think might be positive improvement in his critical thinking skills, then this.

He could be prompted to reinforce his JW beliefs or to stop them. Currently I see him reinforcing JW beliefs, as he has been taught to do since childhood I am sure.

He has this issue with "not being told what to do". Ironic isn't it?

jgnat

Every horrifying human behavior, hubby automatically attributes to Satan. "You mean that psychopath was directed by Satan...he didn't come up with those horrible things to do all by himself?", I ask. It is at once convenient and horrifying to attribute all evil this way.

So how am I to respond if he treats the Church picnic the same way...as from Satan?

garyneal

So how am I to respond if he treats the Church picnic the same way...as from Satan?

Don't know but I do recall one day a while back when I took my wife with me to church and she saw the stainglass portraits of Jesus and the cross and she said that she felt like she was in entering a den of demons. What a cult!

jgnat

I know to overcome a phobia requires small acclamitizations. That doesn't seem to work for church, though. He sees the people are pleasant enough, but then he hides behind his programming.

Laika

My Mum, former Catholic turned JW likes to talk up the demonic influences her family has suffered as a result of their membership in the Church to try to win me back to the JWs. Last time I had dinner with my family my Dad asked for someone to say a prayer, I volunteered and received an expression of disgust in response, assumingly because my prayers are sinful.

Mormons are quite effective at using the emotion of disgust to discourage their members from drinking coffee and alcohol, I have heard.

talesin

When I was being deprrogrammed, disgust was an issue we spent some time on. I thought it was just me! Thank you, jgnat, for starting this topic.

A way of seeing things ... a discussion led by one of my teachers.

Teacher: Disgust is subjective. The JWs are very judgemental, and those things they deem as wrong are termed disgusting. So you were taught to feel disgusted about a lot of things. To see it from a different viewpoint, think of food.

One person loves oysters, another finds them disgusting. That is subjective taste.

Why is any cross disgusting?
Why is homsexuality disgusting?
Why is smoking disgusting?

Because they made an abritrary judgment about something that is subjective. They told you how to feel. How do you really feel?

Is a cross disgusting?

Me: No, some are really beautiful.

Is being gay disgusting?

Me: No, it's just who a person is.

Is smoking disgusting?

Me: Hmm. Well, it could be called nasty, but not disgusting.

That gave me food for thought.

:)

frankiespeakin

The Corporational use of Jehovah/Governing Body disgust:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaoZfzQYwao

Using Disgust

Share this