Contemptuous

Contemptuous

:  manifesting, feeling, or expressing deep hatred or disapproval :  feeling or showing contempt

— con·temp·tu·ous·ly adverb

— con·temp·tu·ous·ness noun

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/contemptuous

Not too long ago, Seth Godin wrote a blog post about contempt. He talked about how difficult it was for people who have been victims of contempt to recover from it. It's a very hard thing to do and it takes a lot of strength to do so. The very few times that I have experience anything close to contempt, I have had a very tough time with it. To look that person in the face and really trying not to ignore them. That's painful.

But on the other end, how does one feel knowing that her actions or expression of contempt is of no basis. How do you recover from victimizing someone? Even when the person has forgiven you, there is still the sense that after you have attacked them so violently before, there is no way that they could have truly forgive you even though they either say or act so.

Where does contempt come from? In my experience, it comes from insecurity and a lack of objective thinking. Seth Godin says it comes from fear and shame and I couldn't agree more.