ABSTRACT
Drawing from moral philosophy, historical, sociological, and psychoanalytic literature, this chapter copes with two akin yet different complex social emotions: resentment and ressentiment. The former is conceived as moral anger and the latter as an affective compensation for life failures. The gravity of the chapter lies with ressentiment, the compensatory nature of which consists in value reversal experienced by inferior social agents through the disavowal of what is unconsciously desired. Special emphasis is put on the political repercussions of ressentiment depicted from different historical contexts. Argumentation is supported by recurrent references to novels and autobiographies showcasing the composition of ressentiment and its roots in individual and societal dynamics.
