Is It Possible To Enjoy The Pain Of Others?

Many of us have ever wondered if it is possible to enjoy the pain of others. In Germany, for example, they do not doubt it and hence the word Schadenfreude exists to describe precisely this behavior. Rejoicing and taking pleasure in the failure or suffering of others is for some experts a type of emotion as real as it is descriptive of the human being.

Now, it shouldn’t surprise us at all if we say that most of us have experienced it at some time. Beyond whether or not it is moral to smile inside at the fatalities of others, there is something evident. There are those who see a kind of “divine justice” in those situations in which someone who at one point misbehaved and ends up receiving their own medicine.

There is a perverse pleasure when, for example, we find that that neighbor who treats us badly has suffered a breakdown and his house has been filled with water. We can even laugh at that friend or relative who, after making a joke on us, ends up tripping and exposing himself. There are situations and situations; some might even be understandable.

Other times, the feeling of delight at the bad luck of others reveals a certain Machiavellianism and that is where that most disturbing side of the human being emerges. Let’s know more data.

It is possible to enjoy the pain of others: this is the explanation

Arthur Schopenhauer said that feeling envy is human, but enjoying the misfortune of other people is diabolical. Because it is possible to enjoy the pain of others and this is something we see frequently. We are struck, for example, by how the phenomenon of bullying is perpetrated on a daily basis, demonstrating how from a very early age people can laugh at the suffering of their peers.

Therefore, it is not necessary for someone to have a personality disorder to experience that delight. Not only psychopaths with their lack of empathy get emotional with the pain of who they have in front of them. Sometimes just watching the opposing team cry at a soccer game creates enjoyment for many fans. Does this perhaps evidence that we all have a dark reverse?

The secret revenge of the powerless and the sense of justice

We pointed it out at the beginning. Most of the times in which the human being delights in the suffering of others responds to a sense of justice. It is the feeling that that person deserves the suffering they experience because they have previously generated it in others in some way (by making use of lies, manipulation, hypocrisy, etc.).

Philosophers like the doctor  

• It is possible to enjoy the pain of others when we think that that person deserves it. Moreover , Nietzsche described S chadenfreude  as ‘the revenge of the impotent’, of that person who has suffered before and who now sees how his punisher suffers.
• This delight also arises when this condition is not serious. That is, we need that misfortune in the other is as slight as possible to feel pleasure.
• There is also another factor: that we are not responsible for this situation. It is always better that chance is the one that makes that person fall that pain that she herself has generated in others.

When delight in the suffering of others reveals a lack of empathy

Marta was betrayed by her partner for months without her knowing it. In the end, her partner left her and started another relationship. A few days ago Marta found out that her ex is being cheated on by his current girlfriend and this gives her great pleasure.

Carlos is driving down a highway and at one point, a driver makes a dangerous maneuver to pass him that almost ends in an accident. Nothing happens and that vehicle is speeding away. After a few kilometers, he sees how the police have arrested that person to give him a fine. Carlos smiles enjoying the scene.

These situations show us once again that it is possible to enjoy the pain of others. Now, as we already know, most of these experiences occur in rather innocuous contexts. However, as we can intuit, the Schadenfreude  emotion can arise in situations in which there is already more evident suffering and whose delight reveals something darker.

It is possible to enjoy the pain of others, but some reveal a “darker” side

Richard H. Smith, a professor at the University of Kentucky, is one of the great experts on what we might call “dark emotions.” Thus, in his book Schadenfreude: The bliss for the evil of others  indicates something interesting to us. The human being, he explains, seeks to feel privileged. Sometimes the simple fact that others suffer or feel humiliated reinforces their self-esteem and fuels their shortcomings.

In other words, there are those who, when they see how others go hungry or calamities, are pleased to see that they are in a better position. If a family member or friend loses their job, they quietly enjoy it because now he or she, in comparison, will be privileged and something like that reinforces their ego.

In these types of situations, what we basically appreciate is a lack of empathy, in addition to a clear emotional coldness. Sadly, we see this phenomenon frequently in many of our settings: politics, economics, social networks … There is never a lack of those voices that delight in the misfortune of others, that celebrate the failure of the other without measuring the significance, without appreciating the human drama that exists. behind the fatal.

As striking as it may seem, this has always happened and will always happen. In the human being there is always a nook where the chiaroscuro navigate. It is enough to remember, for example, the famous phrase of the writer and essayist Gore Vidal that says “ it is not enough to be successful; others must fail ”.