ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the mounting body of theoretical and empirical literature regarding the role of disgust and mental contamination in responses to traumatic events and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Disgust has been conceptualised as a basic emotion with characteristics that uniquely distinguish it from other negative emotions such as anger and fear. Rusch and colleagues employed the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to assess the automaticity of associations between the self and the emotions of either disgust or anxiety among women with PTSD resulting from childhood sexual abuse. Contamination-based obsessions, compulsions, and avoidance were referred to as contamination fears or contamination phobias. In describing bizarre but widespread cultural beliefs, Sir James George Frazer outlined the laws of sympathetic magic almost a century ago. Frazer identified two lower-order sympathetic magical beliefs: the law of similarity; and the law of contact. Mental contamination typically involves elements or judgements regarding morality/immorality and persists despite washing or cleansing rituals.
