Editing Humiliation (section)

== A wider human perspective ==
[[File:The Humiliation of Emperor Valerian by Shapur, King of Persia, by Hans Holbein the Younger.jpg|thumb|''The Humiliation of [[Valerian (emperor)|Emperor Valerian]] by [[Shapur I|Shapur]], King of Persia'' by [[Hans Holbein the Younger]]]]

Donald Klein described humiliation as "a powerful factor in human affairs that has, for a variety of reasons, been overlooked by students of individual and collective behavior. It is a pervasive and all too destructive influence in the behavior of individuals, groups, organizations, and nations."<ref name=Klein>Klein, Donald C. (Ed.), ''[https://www.humiliationstudies.org/documents/KleinHumiliationDynamic.pdf The Humiliation Dynamic]: Viewing the Task of Prevention From a New Perspective'', Special Issue, Journal of Primary Prevention, Part I, 12, No. 2, 1991. New York, NY: Kluwer Academic/ Plenum Publishers.</ref>

Though it is a subjective emotion, humiliation has a universal aspect which applies to all human beings: "it is the feeling of being put down, made to feel less than one feels oneself to be."<ref name=Lindner />

A [[society]] that suffers from humiliation is an unstable one.  The [[cognitive dissonance]] between the way in which the society is perceived and the way in which it sees itself can be so great that violence can result on a massive scale against people belonging to an [[out group]].  According to [[Jonathan Sacks]], "By turning the question 'What did we do wrong?' into 'Who did this to us?', [hate against an out group] restores some measure of self-respect and provides a course of action.  In psychiatry, the clinical terms for this process are [[Splitting (psychology)|splitting]] and [[Psychological projection|projection]]; it allows people to define [[Victimisation#Self-victimisation|themselves as victims]]."<ref>Sacks, Jonathan.  [https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-return-of-anti-semitism-1422638910 "The Return of Anti-Semitism."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180817051754/https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-return-of-anti-semitism-1422638910 |date=17 August 2018 }} ''The Wall Street Journal''.  30 January 2015.  19 October 2016.</ref>