External Shame

[Trifoilum]

a.k.a; Fremdschämen.

http://gxotd.blogspot.com/2010/05/fremdschamen-external-shame.html

It might be a relief to know that in many cases, friends, family, country, hemisphere, or loved one will actually share your plight. You're making them feel just as uncomfortable as you are feeling. Even worse, sometimes you're not even aware of how much of an ass you have made of yourself but others are still embarassed for you.
- You're Bridget Jones on a date.
- Or George W. Bush in trade negotiations with China.
- Or you have your friends over and your parents proudly display your baby pictures.
Watching others humiliate themselves in public can be almost physically painful, yet at the same time, perversely riveting.

Fremdschämen (pronounce: "Fremmd-Shamen") is the German word for this sentiment of joint embarassment. In the literal sense it means "external shame".

Those Germans; they have a lot of interesting concepts, don't they?
But yeah; the concept of external shame. When you feel shame / pity / embarrassment due to someone's faux pases....or in my terms, 'Fe Failure'.

It happened to me plenty of times; I think the reason was projection.
Does it happen to you as well?

 

[benny]

I remember watching an episode of Hey Arnold years ago where Arnold has a crush on his substitute teacher and he thinks she likes him too. He ends up embarrassing himself. And it was indeed painful for me to watch. The next time that episode was on, I changed the channel.

 

[Jana]

Yes, I can't watch talent shows in first episodes in wich judges like to make fun of bad singers...It is paintfull whene they lough at them...

 

[Soulful]

Yeah, it is painful to see someone make themselves look terrible.
And then it's off-putting to watch the result of that if means watching others judging them negatively for it.
I suppose it really stems from how judgmental our world is, eh?
I mean, would we really care if we knew that every response, however silly or worth of a facepalm, would be met with an outpouring of love and appreciation?

 

[barbad0s]

"It might be a relief to know that in many cases, friends, family, country, hemisphere, or loved one will actually share your plight."

D: Not really... the more acknowledgement from others I receive for failing at something, the worse I feel about it...

 

[Vict]

Isn't this just empathy?

 

[Nixie]

Wasn't there already a thread about this somewhere?

How embarrassing.....