All people can be conditionally divided into types in relation to people and the surrounding reality. A person who does not like people is called a misanthrope. This is a kind of interesting psychological phenomenon that has been manifesting itself for several centuries. What is it and how to determine the features of misanthropy in a person?
Misanthropes
The concept of misanthropy is opposed to philanthropy. And if a misanthrope is a person who does not love people, then a philanthropist, on the contrary, is distinguished by great love and a sense of compassion for people.
If in the 19th century misanthropes could be counted on the fingers, today there are quite a lot of them. This attitude to the world has become popular among young people. Such people communicate with each other and unite in online communities.
It is interesting that a misanthrope, a person who did not want to love humanity, is able to reverently relate to animals. Although the view on this is ambiguous: philanthropists do not believe that misanthropes are capable of loving someone. Moreover, they are considered rare egoists.
How does misanthropy arise?
Misanthropy is a rather strange and not entirely studied psychological manifestation. It can arise at any age: individual traits, harsh judgments in relation to people can be heard even from children.
Misanthropy can manifest itself spontaneously in a person. For example, a man was walking down the street and suddenly saw a group of people torturing a poor dog. Only for a second you can become a witness to this scene, and here we have a person who does not like people. This dislike may arise not for humanity as a whole, but only for individual features inherent in the majority of the population of the planet Earth.
In the end, a misanthrope is a person who has never loved and has contempt for such a thing as “love”. Such people wince at the sight of couples in love and lock themselves at home on Valentine's Day.
However, it cannot be said that misanthropes are absolutely alone. Whatever their hatred for humanity and the earthly, they, like other people, have to go to work, communicate with colleagues, etc. It’s just that such people keep their distance and try not to become attached to anyone.
How to communicate with misanthropes
A person who does not like people, in principle, does not cause a desire to communicate with him. Misanthropes are able to bring their loved ones to hysteria with their judgments, therefore, isolating themselves from their society, as they say, is more expensive for themselves.
With such a person, a person with a similar worldview can make friends. In addition, no matter what the misanthropes are, they, like any other person, need to communicate with a living person. Yes, it is also more pleasant to hate humanity not alone.
According to psychologists, the only thing that can give misanthropes a chance to be reborn is love and the appearance of a child. A person can hate and despise people all his life, but maternal or paternal feelings will sooner or later manifest themselves on an instinctive level.
If you want to make friends with a misanthrope or become closer to him, then you need to try not to get into his inner world and be kind and friendly. Perhaps his heart will thaw and hatred will recede into the background.
Most often, misanthropy is a manifestation of youthful maximalism. In this case, everything will fall into place as soon as a person gets older.
Love for misanthropes
Despite external callousness and selfishness, misanthropes often attract people. Girls especially fall under their spell. If you can directly state: “I love a person who does not need it,” then perhaps you met a misanthrope.
In this case, first you need to be patient: it can be difficult to communicate with such a person, and some judgments of a misanthrope can lead to white heat.
Next, you should help the misanthrope to take the path of correction. You have to try to show positive sides humanity, but the most important thing is to show the misanthrope that he is also an ordinary person and he has his own needs, advantages and disadvantages.
Even if the person is not loving people, became soft, some character traits, quite possibly, will be with him until the end of his life. This is pride, vanity, a kind of arrogance and swagger.
To fall in love with a misanthrope is, to some extent, to sacrifice oneself. But perhaps this is not so bad, because every person in the world deserves to love and be loved.
Hatred, like love, is a feeling that does not depend on objective factors. In addition to the intolerance that is common to almost everyone, for example, to murder or torture, there are specific types of aversion to some, sometimes unexpected, activities, objects, smells, tastes and other people, to put it simply - everything in the world has someone who absolutely does not Like.
Special terms have been invented for some of the narrowly focused but widespread dislikes, but people's preferences are so individual that for many other phenomena of irrational dislike of something there is still no name - they are just waiting for their researchers. For you, we have selected the most inexplicable, but ubiquitous examples of intolerance.
1. Misodoctacleidism
Hate to play the piano. Also misodoctakleidists are sometimes called those who do not play this instrument very well.
2. Misocapism
Aversion to tobacco smoke is quite common. This should not be confused with tobacco allergy, which is also present in many people - misocapnists simply have a persistent dislike for the taste and smell of tobacco.
3. Misoneism
Rejection of everything new and unusual (in translation from the Greek “miso” - “I hate” and “neos” - “new”), fear of change. More people suffer from it in one way or another than you might imagine.
4. Misopogonism
Misopogonists are those who really dislike beards. For some reason, this particular type of facial hair causes negative emotions in some members of both sexes, although there is no such term for haters of mustaches.
5. Misogelast
This concept was coined by the English Victorian writer George Meredith to refer to individuals who hate laughter, or at least consider it to be something indecent and vulgar.
6. Misogamism
The almost literal translation of this term is misogyny. Mizogamists do not tolerate the fair sex, and if a woman hates men, then this is called misandrism.
7. Nomomisia
Nomomisists, solely because of the name of a person, can forever lose interest in him - this is a phenomenon of hatred and disgust for certain names.
8. Misopolemism
If you are pathologically trying to avoid quarrels, scandals and disagreements, all the signs of misopolism are on your face - the fear of clarifying the relationship and talking in a raised voice.
9. Misologism
Arguments logical conclusions, causes, consequences and constructive dialogues - all this is not for them. Misologists do not like reflection, try not to take part in such events and avoid defending their point of view.
10. Misopodism
For misopodisists to undress in the presence of another person, even a sexual partner, is a real torture, so they often prefer to make love in clothes.
11. Misophonia
Most people have some form of intolerance to certain sounds. Someone is shivering from the creaking of chalk on a blackboard, others really dislike the crunch of cracking ice and almost everyone is disgusted, for example, if someone at the next table in a cafe does not close his mouth while chewing food, due to which a loud champ is heard .
Speaking about the images of mass culture that have recently become popular, one cannot ignore misanthropes. Due to the fact that many books and films choose this type of personality as the main characters, this word is used more often, but not always correctly, and not everyone understands what is hidden behind this term. We propose to understand who is a misanthrope And what does misanthropy mean.
What does it mean to be a misanthrope?
If sociophobes in certain cases are afraid of society, then misanthropes hate it, and constantly. The word comes from the Greek mizos (to hate) and anthropos (man), and thus misanthropy can be translated as "misanthropy." Such individuals do not like humanity as a species and often seek to oppose themselves to society, in which they approach eccentrics. However, in this endeavor they pursue different goals. Eccentrics don't necessarily hate society, they just want to stand out from the crowd.
On the other hand, misanthropes do not like humanity - in its general, faceless, global mass, especially in the part that concerns social and religious rules, regulations, dogmas and similar restrictions. Them annoying human weaknesses and the fact that people make mistakes and blunders all the time. At the same time, misanthropes may experience quite positive feelings towards your friends(usually few) and close ones. Usually people of this type prefer to have a few friends for ages than to meet someone new.
Let's summarize important distinguishing features of misanthropes:
- do not like humanity as a whole, social, religious and other norms;
- often oppose themselves to society (including in defiant forms);
- positively relate to a few friends and relatives.
Misanthropes and sociopaths. What is the difference?
Of course, the main thing difference between sociopath and misanthrope that sociopathy is a mental disorder, a personality disorder, in other words, a serious pathology, while a misanthrope is more a state of mind. Misanthropes eschew society, avoid it and often oppose themselves to it, which from the outside sometimes manifests itself as unsociableness. 
Yet misanthropy is not a psychiatric diagnosis.
Misanthropes, unlike sociopaths, do not suffer from "a clinical lack of conscience" - they ways to empathize and experience all the other feelings that a person is supposed to experience. At the same time, despite the fact that the individuals in question hate humanity and the various rules established by it, they do not go to kill everyone in a row, because they are quite able to control themselves, distinguish good deeds from bad, right from wrong (recall that sociopaths are guided only by their desires and it is they who measure the correctness of actions).
However, there is a common feature between the misanthrope and the sociopath - as a rule, both types consider themselves exceptional individuals, and everyone else - a gray faceless mass, a herd (although a misanthrope, perhaps, will single out not only himself, but also some other people from such a herd). In addition, misanthropes react badly to their own mistakes as well as to the mistakes of others, while sociopaths are sure that they are impeccable.
We do not have a test for misanthropy on our site, but there is 16-factor Cattell test, which actually tells about your personality according to 20 factors.
Olga Kostina
Lately Increasingly, the word "misanthrope" flashes in films and publics. Despite the popularization of this concept, not everyone knows what it means. Let's try to understand the meaning of this word.
Misanthrope. Meaning
In general, this word consists of two Greek words meaning "hatred" and "man". That is, misanthropy is, practically, "misanthropy". Such people cannot stand humanity as a whole, opposing themselves to society.
At a superficial glance, it may seem that a misanthrope is the same as a sociopath, but this is not at all the case.
Misanthropes do not love all of humanity as a whole, all this incredible mass, especially the rules established by it, social norms, and so on.
They hate people for weaknesses, for unfortunate blunders and mistakes.
At the same time, they are able to love, to experience good feelings in relation to specific individuals. Most often, this type of people prefers to communicate with several trusted friends all their lives and is not looking for new acquaintances.
Today, misanthropes in their pure form are, however, rare. Rather, it is a kind of book image. Many consider themselves misanthropes, but they are more likely to be introverts - self-absorbed, focused on knowing their "I", people.
What are the signs of a misanthrope and its differences from an introvert
How to understand yourself, to understand that you are not just an introvert, but you have much deeper negative feelings towards humanity?
There are signs that indicate this state of mind:
- Discomfort when in an elevator with strangers. It seems that they are only looking at you, standing extremely close, talking unbearably. Time in the elevator stretches endlessly, everyone is hated because of whom it is necessary to stay in this company even for a second longer. An introvert in such situations simply plunges into himself, not paying attention to others.
- Annoying if they sit next to each other in transport. An introvert is able to simply ignore this fact, not even notice the presence of outsiders, while a misanthrope literally hates anyone who violates his personal space. The only thing worse than that is sitting between people.
- Joy, if joint plans with someone are cancelled. Even if it concerns loved ones. In this case, it becomes possible to be with the best person in the world - with yourself. There is no need to interact with others, to tolerate the possible presence of strangers. However, this item also applies to introverts, who will also be happy about the cancellation of plans.
- "There is no bad weather for a misanthrope". More precisely, there is, but they love it. But not because they like to watch a thunderstorm through the window, but simply as another reason not to go out to meet someone.
- Preference for SMS calls. Communication is already a necessary measure, so it is better to replace verbal messages with written ones.
- When meeting with a stranger, first of all, attention is drawn to his minuses. Initially, misanthropes see only negative traits in any person; they already hate outsiders when they meet. They are all badly dressed, they are untidy, they have a strange speech impediment, they do not know how to joke and in general ... are not good.
- Unacceptable group communication. It's unbearable - so many outsiders with their stupid opinions. Even chatting on Skype with a group of friends quickly tires.
- Hatred of sneezes. Again, if you take an introvert, he simply will not notice this fact. Whereas the misanthrope will hate the sneezer even more than before.
You are an introvert or a misanthrope, you are simply indifferent to people or you hate them unbearably - you should not demonstrate this.
Any person, including such an outstanding one as a misanthrope, must hide his attitude towards humanity, then it will be much easier to live.
Sometimes it happens that over time, global hatred is reduced to the size of a negative towards certain groups of people.
How to live a misanthrope?
In fact, it is not so difficult for him to live, because this is not a problem, but a state of mind. However, it may happen that the hatred just overwhelms, or it interferes with the progress at work, or there are other reasons to think about how to reduce this all-consuming hatred?
You can try several ways:
It is important to understand that an introvert, misanthrope and philanthropist is not a mental illness or deviation, it does not need to be treated, you just need to control it so as not to harm yourself and not to annoy others too much.
How to become a misanthrope
Of course, you can become a misanthrope, but why? Most often, such a life position is typical for people who have experienced tragedy, betrayal, serious illness, accidents of varying severity. Misanthropy is often the product of a wrong upbringing. But hardly anyone is able to want to consciously hate all of humanity, to live in constant irritation. In this case, we can already talk about a mental illness that requires medical intervention.
The opposite of a misanthrope - who is it?
Misanthropes have the opposite - this is a philanthropist. It is easy to guess that these are people who have, if not love, then very good feelings for everyone around them, they are constantly trying to help everyone and everyone, to make life easier.
Every day we meet dozens of people with different characters, problems, phobias and lifestyles. Among them there is at least one percent with a serious personality disorder and forms of individualism. The most interesting are people who hate people. Today this issue is especially relevant, because any such deviation from the accepted norm can be harmless and dangerous. Each of these disorders in science has been given specific definitions, signs of manifestation and causes are described. As they are called Let's try to figure it out.
sociopaths
Quite common manifested in the systematic violation of social norms, aggression towards people and the inability to build friendly relations with them. Visually, a sociopath can be described as a frequently conflicted person who is unable to show empathy towards others. Simply put, these are people who hate people, do not seek to make new acquaintances. But they cannot be called unsociable. They show interest in others, but "throw off" any burden of obligations to them. At the same time, sociopaths do not have Sociopathy is classified as a dangerous disorder, since the patient, not getting what he wants, can be aggressive and even resort to violence. Sociopathy breaks the character and behavior of the patient. If left untreated, the disorder will become uncontrollable.
Experts do not have a common opinion about the clear causes of sociopathy in humans. However, there are assumptions about congenital (hereditary) and acquired mental pathology. The latter is due to the conditions of development and formation of personality (strict parents, excessive criticism and demands).
Misanthropes
Often on the forums you can find the question: "What are the people who do not like people called?" And among the many answers slips the term "misanthrope." Who are they and how to recognize misanthropes? Such people either have no friends, or are very narrow. They eschew noisy companies, the misanthropes themselves call their desire for loneliness philosophy or individuality. Misanthropes are characterized by pessimism, distrust, and excessive suspicion. The extreme form is the enjoyment of hatred for people. But, despite the obvious alienation and unsociableness, misanthropes are harmless. Among them, history knows talented creative personalities: A. Schopenhauer, J. Swift, A. Gordon.
A person usually comes to misanthropy when he is not satisfied with the environment, communication with people, their actions. This process is often accompanied by depression and a reshuffling of priorities.
xenophobes
Another form of human hostility is xenophobia. Unlike the previous ones, it is characterized by ideology. Xenophobes are not just people who hate people. Their hostility is associated with a specific feature: national, religious, racial. Experts believe that the roots of xenophobia are hidden in the biological theory of protective reflexes. When a person sees people with a different appearance, mannerisms, character and behavior, at the biological level, the instinct to preserve his species works in him. It is he who prevents the formation of interracial and interethnic marriages. A similar phenomenon can be observed in the animal world. In society, xenophobia acquires a hostile, aggressive character when it becomes an idea. IN modern world the concepts of "xenophobia", "racism" and "nationalism" have become identical.
Nationalists
Today, there is rarely anyone who does not know what people are called who do not like people of a different nationality. Nationalism has gone through several stages in its history. Each of them was sometimes uniting, sometimes aggressive. Today, nationalism is part of the state policy that protects the interests of its people in a constitutional way. However, this kind of xenophobia has many faces. History remembers many examples of aggressive nationalism (from ancient rome to the present day). There are people who hate people of another nation, but show their intolerance quite peacefully. When it becomes a mass phenomenon, it is worth talking about extremism.
racists
Since the time of colonialism, people who do not like people with a different skin color have been called racists. Of course, this phenomenon is much wider. It is based on spiritual, intellectual and physical inequalities. Racists clearly divide society into superior and inferior races and seek to consolidate a certain hierarchy. All this turns into a beautiful ideology of the world order. However, experts believe that racism is one of the forms of phobias towards the “alien”.
Racists can be roughly divided into two groups. The first includes people who hate people of a different race and in every possible way deny any contact with them, seek to dominate or eradicate them (extreme). Another group of racists behave tolerantly towards other races. But he categorically denies close relations with them (marriage, kinship).
animal lovers
“The more I get to know people, the more I like dogs,” the famous misanthrope Schopenhauer once wrote. But not all misanthropes love animals. What do you call people who don't like people but love animals? The term "animal lover" is usually used here. Such people have a dozen cats, dogs or other pets at home. volunteers protecting the rights and lives of animals. But no matter how strong their love for the animal world is, they try to avoid human society. Moreover, they feel dislike.
The reasons for animalism are different. Everyone has their own story: depression, personal philosophy, disappointment in people, betrayal, betrayal, old age, etc. Experts say that not all animal lovers are misanthropes. Many of them have families, like-minded friends. This means that they are capable of loving people.
Tolerance is the path to harmony
People who hate people are called different concepts. Since their dislike wears different shades of manifestation. Summarizing, one clear and correct conclusion can be drawn: any hostility towards people is unnatural for a person. Therefore, it leads to aggression, the destruction of man and the world.
According to statistics, up to 3 percent of the world's population suffer from such disorders. And that's millions! Of these, only a few turn to specialists for help. The rest consider it a style or philosophy of life, their own ideology, politics. To resolve the situation, you need to understand the cause and try to find ways to solve it. And act! As a rule, the first sprouts of human hostility usually take root in childhood. Therefore, it is very important to educate in children a sense of tolerance and equality between people, regardless of their gender, social status, nationality and race.