01/10/2023
Humility
Humility is a feeling that is simultaneously conjunctive and disjunctive. This feeling is also part of our relationship with the world around us, and as such is not to be separated from our psyche. Human society would be impossible without a measure of humility and modesty to make us conscious of the need for co-operation.
Humility occurs whenever it seems that the value of oneโs personal qualities is about to be questioned, or where oneโs conscious self-esteem might be lost. This feeling is strongly communicated to the body, and results in the expansion of the peripheral capillaries. Congestion in the skin capillaries, or blushing, occurs, usually on the face, but there are some people who blush all over.
Humility can also be an attitude of withdrawal. It can become a gesture of self-isolation, bound up with slight depression, which amounts to a readiness to flee from a threatening situation. Downcast eyes and coyness are preparations for flight, revealing that humility, like other feelings, can be disjunctive if misused. Some people become embarrassed so easily that all their relationships with other people are spoilt by this disjunctive trait. Its value as a means of achieving isolation becomes obvious when it is exaggerated in this way.
