Sentimentalists try to make up for a lack of feeling by emotional exhibitionism. Men who feel little for women or children often have their names tattooed on their arms; the tattoo says, in effect, "Look what I am prepared to do for you." This is all too often a prelude to abandonment; the man is prepared to have himself tattooed, but not prepared for the slow grind of lasting support, which requires genuine feeling.
I am, I am pretty sure, immune to sentimentality.
It isn't sentimentality at work here. It's narcissism with a dash of self-delusion. The other flaws in this essay are the gratuitous swipes at Freud and at social networking.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy reading Mr. D but this is the second essay of his that I have read this month that has really disappointed me.
I always liked a definition I read somewhere that sentiment is incompletely imagined emotion.
ReplyDeleteAnd that of course is greatly to be feared in my business.