Moral breakdowns and their (failed) repair: The role of socionormative concerns in ressentiment formation
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Conceptualizations of ressentiment imply different assessments regarding the question whether the subject of ressentiment’s (SR) initial conflict is about constitutively socionormative concerns or whether moralizing anti-sentiments and self-glorifications ground in self-centred feelings of impotence and inferiority. Although the self-deceptive affective and cognitive dynamics of ressentiment development ultimately result in a distorted evaluative outlook, the SR’s repetitive obsession with socionormative matters should not be dismissed as an a posteriori coping mechanism. Rather, the SR’s inability to realize feelings of value points to a constitutively socionormative problematic involving a fundamental disruption of implicit value orientations (moral breakdown) as well as a structurally (re-)produced inability to engage in processes of communicative repair. It is concluded that ressentiment is a psychosocial phenomenon that can only be understood by looking simultaneously at its psycho-affective as well as sociodiscursive underpinnings.
Source: Theory & Psychology
Authors: Markus Wrbouschek, Katharina Hametner
Institution: Sigmund Freud Privatuniversität Wien
Language: English
Topic: Emotions and Moral Behavior
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,650
OpenAlex ID: W7123402153