Why do we find relationship trainwrecks so fascinating?

[randomness]

And I completely include myself, here. The last couple of days in the Bay Area have been chock-full of conversation about the wacky antics of some remarkable people. It's been wonderful, really, particularly as a way of bonding with folks you haven't seen in a while.

I guess I'm a terrible person for finding it all so intriguing, eh?

Comments

[apintrix.livejournal.com]

you and all the rest of us...
I'm studying the positive attractions of negative affects right now, so:

Burkean model: your fascination comes from the moral faculty sympathy, which God made pleasant so that you would want to pay attention to other's misfortunes and thus give yourself a chance to help them.

Hunter species model: you enjoy others' suffering because you are from a hunter species that eats off of killing. Enjoy your schadenfreude.

Mendelssohn's mixed-affect model: the combination of natural love and sympathy with aversion and negativity makes a more complex emotion that is much more interesting than simpler ones.

Psychoanalysis model: clearly, you are using it to work out your own issues.


So, not *everyone* thinks it makes you a terrible person...

[muffyjo]

damn, that's an awesome answer. After that, I feel too intimidated to comment! Except that everyone knows he's a truly terrible person. ;)

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

applause:)

[coraline]

very impressive!

mostly, i don't worry about why other people's trainwrecks are fascinating, i just accept that they are...

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I'm studying the positive attractions of negative affects right now

I confess I'd forgotten what you were studying, so I'm glad to have that much of an update.

Enjoy your schadenfreude.

Mmmm...schadenfreude. :)

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Except that everyone knows he's a truly terrible person.

If everyone knows it, it must be true!

[apintrix.livejournal.com]

Hopefully, by the end of next week I will be done with positive attractions of negative affects for a little while, as my MA thesis is due next Friday. *gulp*

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Wow, best of luck!

[dpolicar]

You are, but we find you fascinating precisely because of your terribleness.

[orichalcum.livejournal.com]

Have you seen Avenue Q?

[tavella.livejournal.com]

...your icon describes my life!

[redbird]

Some combination of deep-seated social species feeling that we need to know this because it may affect our interactions with one or more parties, and the same whatever-it-is that leads people to gossip at length about other sorts of problems (e.g., serious illnesses), their own and other people's?

I just try to make sure that I'm not involved in such things directly. (Mostly, it has worked.)

[denyse.livejournal.com]

Totally missed your trip here. You have to look me up next time!

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I figured you were too busy! But I expect to be back in the next couple of months, so let's plan on meeting up then.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Not yet, alas.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I just try to make sure that I'm not involved in such things directly.

Good plan!