What distinguishes it from sorrow? From despair? From sulkiness? From resentment at life?
Is it spoken of in Scripture anywhere (maybe using another word)?
What is self-pity?
Musing Out Loud
What distinguishes it from sorrow? From despair? From sulkiness? From resentment at life?
Is it spoken of in Scripture anywhere (maybe using another word)?
I got a couple of responses from people, just not on the blog.
1) A friend, Chris Gallegos, posted this response on facebook:
“I think it may be a form of pride. On one side of pride you have abject arrogance…and on the other abject self-pity. Both put you in a vise grip of attitude that make you believe there is no alternative view point and both lead to despair. Just a thought.”
2) My son Nathan, my daughter Bekah, and I had an interesting discussion about the question.
– They pointed out that sorrow is for the most part an emotion (not within our control) whereas self-pity is more of a choice, a deliberate stance one takes.
– They discussed whether self-pity is a form of anger. Nathan felt that on the “anger scale” the five things I mentioned would be arranged like this (I think):
sorrow <----> despair <----> self-pity <----> sulkiness <----> resentment at life
less anger <------------------------------------------------------------------> more anger
– Nathan also pointed out that self-pity, as self-absorbed as it can be, feels more like posturing, more stagey, than real sorrow. When you feel self-pity, it’s less a matter of feeling bad about whatever, and more a matter of feeling bad about feeling bad.