On “Negative” Exhibitionism

Exhibitionism, as it is generally encountered in sublimated form, consists of a parade of achievements, abilities, talents or works, to which the typical spectator reacts with admiration, hatred or envy. But there also exists a form of exhibitionism which produces contempt in the spectator; in this “negative exhibitionism”, the exhibitor flaunts typically hidden material: words, actions, organs, traits which are disagreeable, disgusting, painful. The spectator's disapproval is often strongly colored with revulsion and anger; at his most charitable, he condemns the exhibitor's “bad taste”.

The language possesses no word to describe negative exhibitionism although the phenomenon is familiar enough to be covered by a stock phrase: “He made a disagreeable spectacle of himself.”

One could dismiss the problem by pointing out that negative exhibitionism is obviously a product of self-damaging or even masochistic tendencies within the individual. This is certainly true; yet there is more to the problem. If psychic masochism were its full and complete explanation, the matter of specificity—why the specific person uses this specific outlet—would remain an unsolved question.

A person who has undergone a colostomy and is left with an artificial intestinal opening, a person with an amputated leg, a deep post-operative scar or a disfiguring wound will not typically exhibit his mutilation to a stranger. A negative exhibitionist does exactly that.

In my opinion, the problem hinges on “taking the blame for the lesser intrapsychic crime.” When the defendant is accused by his inner conscience of a major crime, he admits to a lesser offense. And in the cases of negative exhibitionism I have observed, the lesser crime was exhibitionism, and the greater crime which was being warded off was—Peeping (voyeurism).

This “voyeuristic exhibitionistic exchange mechanism” is by now nothing new. In writers, for example, it plays a decisive part, which is described in my book, “The Writer and Psychoanal