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Spanish shame- What is this? Where did the expression come from?

November 5, 2017

The feeling of shame most often arises in the face of the public, which condemns for what has been done or said. This feeling originates and is fueled by the presence in society of a generally accepted moral code and set of rules. But are we always ashamed only of ourselves?

A Kind of Shame

Usually you have to blush for your behavior. But the interesting fact is that the feeling of shame also comes for what you didn’t do. For example, for bad behavior your child or when a stranger kisses a girl on the public transport, and you are ashamed of them. The reasons for such discomfort may be your internal taboo on such manners or the desire to take responsibility for someone.

The first signal that will inform about this is embarrassment. He says that the event that is taking place goes beyond convention. And the feeling of embarrassment for a stranger is called Spanish shame. We will talk about it further.

History of the expression

In Russian, the expression “Spanish shame” appeared after 2000; it came to us from English, where it sounds like spanish shame. And the ancestor of the phraseological unit was the Spanish term verguenza ajena, which, precisely, meant “shame for another.” True, there is another interpretation of the origin of the term, in which Spain is out of place, since it supposedly came to us from Hebrew, where “ispa” is translated as “aspen”.

In popular apocryphal version Judas, who betrayed Christ, hanged himself on an aspen tree. The tree felt ashamed of its choice, although it was not to blame. But, according to popular belief, the tree is punished, because ancient myths associate the trembling of its branches with God’s curse imposed for making a cross from it for the crucifixion of Christ.

Thus, one must understand that “Spanish shame” is not a scientific formulation psychological state, but a well-established opinion, namely a meme.

Video on the topic

Semantic meaning

We have figured out the history of the origin of phraseological units. Now we will decipher the semantic load of the expression. "Spanish shame" means that someone feels embarrassed for the wrong actions of others. Psychologists claim that a feeling of shame for others arises when a person recognizes himself as part of a people who commit unseemly acts.

The criteria for membership can be varied: gender, age, position, external similarity. But if this general thing affects you, you will feel uncomfortable. It becomes so obvious different attitude to one event different people. For example, at a banquet an unknown woman gets drunk and dances on the table - you may feel awkward or funny. If it was your friend, then you will probably feel a sense of shame.

Showing tact

The expression “Spanish shame” is determined by the emergence of a painful emotion that arose due to the awareness of the absurdity of the behavior of fellow citizens, which offends the concepts of decency and modesty. Psychologist Elliot Aronson wrote in his book that we often compare ourselves with the people around us, and this, in turn, increases our self-esteem. Looking at a person committing stupidity, we are satisfied with the humiliation of the poor fellow, mentally saying that we would never find ourselves in the role of a loser.

I don’t want to believe that it’s fun for us to watch others suffer and be humiliated. Meanwhile, television ratings and the number of video views on the Internet prove this hypothesis. If in life the mistakes of others do not always bring pleasure to those who witness them, then when in a movie an actor falls face first into a cake, this causes genuine laughter from many viewers. The survey revealed that the laughing subject experiences internal embarrassment, but it is accompanied by the consolation that someone else is worse off than he is.

What conclusions can be drawn?

Not only beauty will save the world, but also a society of self-sufficient and harmonious faces. You should be wary of individuals with an atrophied sense of conscience. Decency must be regulated in the process of socialization and education of the child in order to avoid negative consequences. Decency is a positive symptom of the essence, if it is expressed in moderation. Confusion serves as a marker that something is wrong. We avert our eyes to “save face” of the one who got into difficult situation, is empathy, emotional sympathy, an excellent spiritual impulse that makes us better. This means that it should be understood that Spanish shame is a positive personality trait.

Spanish shame is a feeling of embarrassment or shame for other people. For example, older children are often ashamed of their parents. Someone is ashamed of a friend who behaves humiliatingly or disgustingly. There are any number of examples. Another example of shame for another, it’s as if the hero of the film did something unaesthetic and stupid, and you are ashamed of him. Have you seen the recent prank of the actor Panin in videos on the Internet? The actor publicly masturbated. This caused a feeling of awkwardness and burning shame for him, thoughts about why he was doing this in front of everyone, and this is also called “Spanish shame.” So Spanish shame is an acute feeling of embarrassment for the actions of another. That feeling when you are painfully embarrassed to see someone doing something shameful, low, stupid. Sensitive people Because of the “Spanish shame” they can’t watch reality shows: they are ashamed to the point of shuddering for the heroes and want to exclaim: “Oh, no! Not this!” We can also be “ashamed in Spanish” for politicians who behave inappropriately in life and are not aware of their shame. You may be ashamed of a colleague who spoke amateurishly and incompetently at a professional forum in the presence of high-ranking professionals. You may be ashamed if in your presence people behave primitively and unworthily, they underestimate other people who notice and understand their baseness.
“Spanish shame” has the same roots and is akin to the very concept of shame. What is shame?

Shame is a negatively colored feeling, a feeling of awkwardness, the object of which is any action, words, speech or quality of the subject. This concept has its roots in Bible stories. Did Eve feel shame after the Fall? Without a doubt.
Shame is associated with a feeling of social unacceptability of what one is ashamed of. That is, shame is always looking back and measuring what people will think?
For a feeling of shame to arise, real or perceived witnesses to what one is ashamed of are needed - those in front of whom one is ashamed. In the absence of witnesses, a feeling of shame does not arise, but a feeling of guilt may arise. And if there are plenty of witnesses to one’s fall, then the feeling of shame can be flooding and burning. The feeling of shame in front of “Significant Others”, in front of those whom you respect, love and who are your authority, is especially acute. Shame is a purely personal feeling, one might even say intimate, in private, in your thoughts. It’s impossible to be ashamed of everyone together, collectively, even when there is something to be ashamed of. And further. Shame and morality, shame and morality are closely related. “Something immoral” very often causes shame in a person with the foundations of morality and universal human values ​​instilled in him from childhood.
According to a number of anthropologists who study shame and its manifestations, shame has higher value in collectivist cultures (Japan, China, Brazil, Greece, Iran, Russia, South Korea). Whereas in Western cultures based on individualism, shame was replaced by guilt, but not completely replaced. The importance of shame in collectivist cultures is, among other things, a consequence of the fact that in these cultures social norms are shared by almost everyone and are mandatory to follow.
The most reliable concepts of shame are given by ancient philosophers. According to Plato, shame is “the fear of bad rumors” similar definition shame is also found in Aristotle.
Spinoza in his work “Ethics” says:
“Shame is displeasure accompanied by the idea of ​​some of our actions, behavior, deed, which others, as it seems to us, condemn. We need to pay attention to the difference that exists between shame and modesty. Shame is displeasure following an act of which we are ashamed; modesty is the fear or fear of shame, preventing a person from allowing anything shameful. Shyness is usually contrasted with shamelessness, which in fact does not constitute an emotion; but the names show their usage more than their nature."

According to Oxford Dictionary In English, shame is “a painful emotion that arises as a consequence of the awareness of something dishonest, ridiculous or indecent in own behavior or circumstances of life (or the same in the behavior or life of others, whose honor or shame a person considers as his own) or as a result of being in a situation that offends the individual’s own modesty or decency.”
The feeling of shame is also of great importance in sociological research. From a public point of view, mainly two phenomena attract attention - marriage with its various forms and crime. Just as the field of mental deviation from the norm provides the richest research material, so in the field of social research crimes and criminals in which the sense of shame is dulled may be of interest to a sociologist not only in theoretically.
When considering the concept of shame, Spanish shame, it is important not to confuse these phrases with concepts such as:
Shyness - avoidance of what may be embarrassing
Feelings of guilt - pangs of conscience
Shyness – indecisiveness, timidity, awkwardness
Modesty - the ability to keep oneself within limits
@Irena Tarno (Written based on Wikipedia and the Internet)

Spanish shame: what kind of feeling overcomes us?

Spanish shame refers to the feeling of embarrassment that a person experiences for the actions of another, for example when main character movie guy does something stupid, and you blush for him. This feeling is quite painful, and it is awkward to watch someone do something shameful. Some people can't even watch reality TV or be around because of this. in public places. This feeling originates and is fueled by the presence in society of a generally accepted moral code and set of rules. The reasons for discomfort for the actions of others may be your internal taboo on certain behaviors or the desire to take responsibility for someone.
On Spanish it sounds like “vergüenza ajena,” which translated means “shame for another.” The very name of the concept contains the answer, where does this feeling come from? Spanish shame was invented in Spain, whose inhabitants have always been hyper-emotional. According to some philologists and linguists this expression comes from watching Spanish-language TV series, where there are an abundance of scenes when someone falls awkwardly, drinks some kind of rubbish, admits terrible absurdity in his actions, and the hero in response to this says with a mask of theatrical compassion on his face: “Oh, no ! At these moments, the audience immediately becomes terribly ashamed of this poor idiot.
WITH light hand The Spanish expression spread all over the world, because it turned out that being ashamed of others happens not only in Spain, but also in other countries. This emotion is widespread worldwide, especially among conscientious people and perfectionists. A little later, the feeling of shame, noticed in Spain, received its English name “Spanish shame”, based on the place of its origin. Although initially in English language It was the Spanish term that was used, it is even mentioned in Wikipedia in the section “Terms difficult or impossible to translate.” Only with the passage of time instead original expression began to be used in Spanish English equivalent. Both options are now acceptable in English.
Well, the concept came to the Russian language from English way literal translation. This is how the expression “Spanish shame” came about. When? – Nobody knows, but having searched the Internet for materials containing this concept, nothing was found before 2000, and for the period from 2000 to 2010 no more than 10 references were found. Therefore, we can conclude that “Spanish shame” began to be used in Russian as a concept approximately in 2010.
However, there is another version of the appearance of the term in the Russian language, where Spain no longer plays any role. According to this option, the expression “Spanish shame” came from Hebrew, where “ispa” is translated as aspen. In the popular biblical version, Judas, who betrayed Jesus, hanged himself from an aspen tree. The tree became very ashamed of Judas’s choice, although it was not to blame. That is, within the framework of this interpretation, there is precisely shame for the action of another person. According to popular beliefs, the aspen tree was punished, because ancient myths associate the trembling of its branches with God's curse imposed for making a cross from it for the crucifixion of Christ.
Thus, it is necessary to understand that Spanish shame is not a scientific formulation of a psychological state, but an established judgment, namely a meme.

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The feeling of shame most often arises in the face of the public, which condemns for what has been done or said. This feeling originates and is fueled by the presence in society of a generally accepted moral code and set of rules. But are we always ashamed only of ourselves?

A Kind of Shame

Usually you have to blush for your behavior. But the interesting fact is that the feeling of shame also comes for what you didn’t do. For example, for the bad behavior of your child or when a stranger kisses a girl on public transport, and you are ashamed of them. The reasons for such discomfort may be your internal taboo on such manners or the desire to take responsibility for someone.

The first signal that will inform about this is embarrassment. He says that the event that is taking place goes beyond convention. And the feeling of embarrassment for a stranger is called Spanish shame. We will talk about it further.

History of the expression

In Russian, the expression “Spanish shame” appeared after 2000; it came to us from English, where it sounds like spanish shame. And the ancestor of the phraseological unit was the Spanish term verguenza ajena, which, precisely, meant “shame for another.” True, there is another interpretation of the origin of the term, in which Spain is out of place, since it supposedly came to us from Hebrew, where “ispa” is translated as “aspen”.

In the popular apocryphal version, Judas, who betrayed Christ, hanged himself from an aspen tree. The tree felt ashamed of its choice, although it was not to blame. But, according to popular belief, the tree is punished, because ancient myths associate the trembling of its branches with God’s curse imposed for making a cross from it for the crucifixion of Christ.

Thus, one must understand that “Spanish shame” is not a scientific formulation of a psychological state, but an established judgment, namely a meme.

Semantic meaning

We have figured out the history of the origin of phraseological units. Now we will decipher the semantic load of the expression. "Spanish shame" means that someone feels embarrassed for the wrong actions of others. Psychologists claim that a feeling of shame for others arises when a person recognizes himself as part of a people who commit unseemly acts.

The criteria for membership can be varied: gender, age, position, external similarity. But if this general thing affects you, you will feel uncomfortable. This makes it obvious that different people have different attitudes towards one event. For example, at a banquet an unknown woman gets drunk and dances on the table - you may feel awkward or funny. If it was your friend, then you will probably feel a sense of shame.

Showing tact

The expression “Spanish shame” is determined by the emergence of a painful emotion that arose due to the awareness of the absurdity of the behavior of fellow citizens, which offends the concepts of decency and modesty. Psychologist Elliot Aronson wrote in his book that we often compare ourselves with the people around us, and this, in turn, increases our self-esteem. Looking at a person committing stupidity, we are satisfied with the humiliation of the poor fellow, mentally saying that we would never find ourselves in the role of a loser.

I don’t want to believe that it’s fun for us to watch others suffer and be humiliated. Meanwhile, television ratings and the number of video views on the Internet prove this hypothesis. If in life the mistakes of others do not always bring pleasure to those who witness them, then when in a movie an actor falls face first into a cake, this causes genuine laughter from many viewers. The survey revealed that the laughing subject experiences internal embarrassment, but it is accompanied by the consolation that someone else is worse off than he is.

What conclusions can be drawn?

Not only but also a society of self-sufficient and harmonious individuals. You should be wary of individuals with an atrophied sense of conscience. Decency must be regulated in the process of socialization and raising a child in order to avoid negative consequences. Decency is a positive symptom of the essence, if it is expressed in moderation. Confusion serves as a marker that something is wrong. We avert our eyes in order to “save face” for someone who is in a difficult situation - this is empathy, emotional sympathy, an excellent emotional impulse that makes us better. This means that it should be understood that Spanish shame is a positive personality trait.

According to the dictionary, Spanish shame is the feeling of feeling embarrassed for another person who makes something stupid or sarcastic. Despite the fact that not everyone is familiar with the term, almost everyone has directly encountered the situation itself. It’s enough just to imagine how famous actor or the singer does something stupid, after which the viewer/fan's cheeks begin to turn pink on their own. It is almost impossible to control this, which, in turn, gives rise to irritability, even anger, and, of course, self-doubt. The article talks about where this concept came from, as well as why Spanish shame is called that and how it is dangerous for the psyche of a particular person.

Origin and meaning

First of all, it should be noted that there is no geographical reference this term no, just the feeling of embarrassment for another is called Spanish shame. Why is that? The fact is that the word itself was invented precisely in Spain, perhaps because of the emotionality and openness of this people, who knows. Something else is more important. They coined the term vergüenza ajena. The phrase passed into English, but in its original form. For some simplification it was replaced by more simple option- Spanish shame. The Russian version is a direct translation of the borrowed phrase; it does not indicate where the term first appeared. Moreover, Spaniards feel embarrassed for others just as often as other people, there is no pattern here, read more about this in this article.

Physiology and psychology

What does Spanish shame mean? In fact, this is a manifestation of two direct associative connections - psychological and physiological. Seeing how a certain person behaves stupidly, the individual subconsciously transfers his behavior matrix to his own, and then compares it. If he feels awkward for such an “example,” it means that he has already felt something similar before, but in relation to himself, and now he simply remembers those emotions. At least this reaction occurs physiologically. That is specific action entailed redness, dilated pupils, sweating, and confusion earlier. If you see something similar again, but from the outside, the individual’s body will again feel similar. There is a correlation between psychologically and physiological consequences.

Internal complexes

One of the main reasons that can provoke the manifestation of Spanish shame is the individual’s tightness and his own complexes. Most likely, he forbids himself quite a lot, for example, looking stupid in public, drinking alcohol, dressing provocatively, or behaving loosely. In this case, between real behavior another person and the psychosomatic matrix of the individual fails. Having created and imagined " perfect image", a person cannot come to terms with the fact that someone simply does not need him, after which a feeling of awkwardness for another member of society manifests itself. In this case, it is necessary to fight not with injustice in the world, represented by emancipation, but with own complexes. Politeness and restraint are fine, but they must be a conscious choice and not an escape from one's own self.

Transferring the image of another person onto yourself

Enough dangerous problem, which is fraught with serious consequences. The very fact that an individual takes an example from someone is not scary. Much more dangerous is the direct replacement of one’s “I” with someone else’s. This leads to the manifestation of emotions, actions, and behavior that are unusual for a person. As a result, Spanish shame acts as an indicator of independence. A sane person will not feel embarrassed for another, because he is completely sure that the behavior being demonstrated is unusual for him. Transferring someone else’s way of thinking onto your own “I” is extremely dangerous, since it can develop into a full-fledged split personality, which is already a severe psychological disorder.

Hyperresponsibility and other people's problems

Another problem that Spanish shame can be an indicator of is the hyper-responsibility of the individual. He subconsciously feels the need to worry, to take responsibility for other people. It is quite possible that this is dictated by an inferiority complex or the fear of being unnecessary in society. In addition, other problems may be the root cause. It is much more important that this kind of disorder can result in full-fledged domestic tyranny if a person has a family. Ultimately, Spanish shame will lead to the fact that the individual will try to deliberately, and later forcibly, change, remake, crush the behavior of the one who caused embarrassment. Such actions can cause a quarrel.

Why is it dangerous to compare yourself to others?

A healthy adult mind always “understands” that each person is individual and does not try to evaluate the behavior of another individual from the point of view own system values. This behavior is characteristic of a tolerant, correct, civilized society, in which everyone has the right to self-expression and self-determination. If a man or woman feels embarrassed for another, for example, a member similar to theirs social group, then there is a suppression of individuality and standardization of the generation. This is dangerous because too strong a discrepancy between the imposed moral and ethical values ​​and the behavior of another individual can lead to psychological trauma. The subsequent revision of one's own priorities and values ​​is sometimes very cruel in relation to a person's life model. Feeling ashamed of others forces you to change.