A slap in the face : why insults hurt and why they shouldn't / William B. Irvine.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Irvine, William Braxton, 1952-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Resilience (Personality trait).

Invective.

Physical Description:

253 pages ; 19 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, [2013]

Summary:

William Irvine undertakes a wide-ranging investigation of insults, their history, the role they play in social relationships, and the science behind them, examining not just memorable zingers, such as Elizabeth Bowen's description of Aldous Huxley as "The stupid person's idea of a clever person," but subtle insults as well, such as when someone insults us by reporting the insulting things others have said about us: "I never read bad reviews about myself," wrote entertainer Oscar Levant, "because my best friends invariably tell me about them." Irvine also considers the role insults play in our society: they can be used to cement relations, as when a woman playfully teases her husband, or to enforce a social hierarchy, as when a boss publicly berates an employee. He goes on to investigate the many ways society has tried to deal with insults-by adopting codes of politeness, for example, and outlawing hate speech-but concludes that the best way to deal with insults is to immunize ourselves against them: We need to transform ourselves in the manner recommended by Stoic philosophers. We should, more precisely, become insult pacifists, trying hard not to insult others and laughing off their attempts to insult us.

Contents:

Insult arsenal

Words like daggers

Subtle digs

Bludgeoned with praise

Benign insults

Insult psychology

World of hurt

Who gets hurt?

Why we insult

Dealing with insults

Personal responses to insults

Societal responses to insults

Insults, the inner game

Insights.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780199934454

0199934452

OCLC:

798809728