“The happiness of others, therefore, has a depressing effect, their unhappiness an elevating effect upon our self-esteem.”
Friedrich Paulsen, A System of Ethics (1899)
Commenter Club Schadenfreude objects to Kristor addressing him as Club Schadenfreude, but his objection is not my concern here. I am, rather, concerned with the meaning of schadenfreude, and perhaps with the significance of operating a club by that name.
Schadenfreude is, of course, a German word that denotes the pleasure a man takes in another man’s misfortune. Not in the misfortune of an enemy, I hasten to add, for that is mere malice. Schadenfreude is the pleasure he takes in the misfortune of a stranger, and perhaps more particularly the pleasure he takes in the misfortune of a friend. Schadenfreude is, in other words, a perversion of compassion, and it is a pleasure with which very few of us are altogether unacquainted.
Ethicists generally recognize schadenfreude as the twin of envy, envy being unhappiness occasioned by another’s happiness, schadenfreude happiness occasioned by another’s unhappiness.
“These are well-known phenomena: they are never entirely wanting in man. The pessimistic philosophers love to dwell upon this truly partie honteuse of human nature.”*
The French phrase means “shameful part,” and like the shameful parts of the human anatomy, envy and schadenfreude are sentiments we take care to conceal. We take care to conceal them because they are dishonorable sentiments, envy entailing an admission of weakness, schadenfreude being pity without the mask.
We see that pity is not all it is cracked up to be when we reflect that pity is much more agreeable to give than to receive. The reason for this is not hard to discover. When I express pity for my friend’s misfortune, I am secretly gratified by the reflection that my circumstances are, by comparison, quite comfortable. When I pity a friend, I am in fact praising myself.
This relation is reversed in envy because, when I praise a friend, I implicitly confess that I am, by comparison, pitiful. Envy is thus wounded self-esteem. Schadenfreude on the other hand is self-esteem petted, stroked, and exquisitely gratified. It is, as I just said, pity without the mask. As Lucretius says in his great atheist poem On the Nature of Things (c. 75 B.C.).
“’Tis sweet, when down the mighty main, the winds
Roll up its waste of waters, from the land
To watch another’s laboring anguish far,
Not that we joyously delight that man
Should be thus smitten, but because ’tis sweet
To mark what evils we ourselves be spared.”**
Schadenfreude is not, as is sometimes said, malicious pleasure. It is the pleasure of marking, by observation or report, the suffering of evils from which I have myself been spared. As Lucretius goes on to say:
“ ’Tis sweet, again, to view the mighty strife
Of armies embattled yonder o’er the plains,
Ourselves no sharers in the peril . . .”**
Schadenfreude is, to wrap this up, a psychological trick with which my ego assures me I am special. I am (naturally but dishonorably) gratified by the misfortunes of strangers and friends, not because I hate those strangers and friend so bitterly, but because I love myself so tenderly. It is owing to self-love, as my epigraph puts it, that news of their good fortune has “a depressing effect” on my self-esteem, whereas my self-esteem is by reports of their misery most decidedly elevated.
This may be evidence, I cannot forebear to mention, of Adam’s sin.
*) Friedrich Paulsen, A System of Ethics, Frank Thilly ed., Fourth ed. (New York: Charles Scribner, 1899), p. 593.
**) Book 2, William Ellery Leonard trans.
The Orthosphere 
Do we have a word for the Irish/Celtic tendency to be happy when things are going badly, but unhappy when things are going well?
We have Chesterton’s testimony about the “great Gaels of Ireland, the men that God made mad;” and we have CS Lewis’ Puddleglum and marsh-wiggles more generally, and his dolorous Scotsman in That Hideous Strength. But I don’t know of an actual word for this phenomenon.
I know the disposition you describe, but am struggling to think of a name. The comic novelist P.G. Wodehouse has his character Bertram Wooster describe it in more or less these terms: “When the sun comes out and the bluebirds begin sing, you know fate is creeping up from behind and will shortly sock you in the neck.” This is slightly different than, but closely related to, the believe that “hubris brings on nemesis.” Maybe we should just call it pessimism. It is the belief that each of us has, at best, a very limited portion of happiness, and that any feast of happiness must therefore be followed by a famine.
Yes. When things are going well they are going badly, because one doesn’t know when the next shoe may drop, and when things are going badly they are going well, because at least then you may be able to punch the problem in the face. Hence “all their wars are merry, and all their songs are sad.”
” ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay’ says the Lord”
and I admit I enjoy watching Him in action
nice admission of schadenfreude.
Ah, nothing JM showing how christians have no problem making false claims about others, aka lying.
Poor Peter, It’s great to see how impotent your god is. I’m glad to see you express schadenfreude too. You just try to claim innocence of it by claiming it’s just your god doing this.
Unsurprisngly, JM hasn’t even gone out to my blog to see why I call it Club Schadenfreude, and thus proceeds from a strawman. It’s also great fun to see christians and their need to dig out books from the 19th century to support their ignorance. Paulsen, like so many philosophers, simply makes things up with no evidence, like his magical “soul” claims. He has his baseless opinion, nothing more. Just like JM.
it’s also great to see made up “definitions” like “Schadenfreude is the pleasure he takes in the misfortune of a stranger, and perhaps more particularly the pleasure he takes in the misfortune of a friend.”
Hmm, so just how does it work to take pleasure in the misfortune of a friend? Do explain that, dear. No definition adds that bit. Only deceitful christians evidently do. Alas, envy and jealousy aren’t part of schadenfreude either. It, in my case, is seeing justice served. Curious how christians also take pleasure in this when they pretend their god punishes someone for not agreeing with them.
Again, no evidence that I do this at all, and if poor JM would actually care to find out about me, I explain this: ”I also get a great amount of pleasure and satisfaction from those who suffer from their own willful ignorance, greed, bigotry, selfishness or arrogance. Hence, Schadenfreude. Unfortunately, they tend to make the rest of us suffer too.”
I do find it hilarious that the bible has this ” “Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth: Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.”” which is no more than don’t have schadenfreude or this bizarre god will stop punishing people.
Unsurprisngly, no orignal sin, and that whole story in Eden is quite a failure. A god makes two amoral humans and then throws a tantrum when they don’t know that obey this god is a “good” thing. Curious how all of that would have been taken care of by, you know, forgiveness. That’s what your jesus is all about, right?
I explained how a man takes pleasure in the misfortunes of his friend in the post, and I even provided a footnote and a literary illustration. Harm (Schaden) of another makes us happy (freud) because we enjoy the reflection we are not suffering it. It enhances our sense of well-being. Sort of the way taunting Christians enhances your sense of well-bing. It makes you feel big and smart.