ABSTRACT
Else Voigtlander provided one of the first substantial contributions to the phenomenology of the emotions. Her writings, which unfortunately have remained mostly unexplored, anticipate many of the issues that would become major focal points for later phenomenologists working on the topic. This chapter presents Voigtlander’s notion of feelings of self-worth. It devotes to her analyses of inauthentic feelings, Ressentiment and other negative attitudes, and erotic love, respectively. The concept of “feelings of self-worth”, which was first employed by Lipps, is used to refer to an emotional phenomenon belonging to the family of self-regarding attitudes. More specifically, it refers to those feelings in which we experience our own value. An intriguing topic introduced by Voigtlander concerns the possibility for a feeling to be inauthentic. Crucial in her book is the distinction between genuine feelings of self-worth and “non-genuine or mirror feelings of self-worth”.
