Joy of Pain

Few people confess easily to taking pleasure in the misfortunes of others. Maybe this is why there is no word for the feeling in English. And so schadenfreude, that beguiling German word, is borrowed to label the experience. This book, written by one of the world's foremost scholars of envy and shame, explores the emotion we dare not admit.

Richard H. Smith is Professor of Psychology at the University of Kentucky. He graduated with a degree in English Literature from Brown University and received his Ph.D. in experimental social psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His book, Envy: Theory and Research, was published by Oxford University Press in 2008.

Introduction
Chapter 1 The Highs of Superiority
Chapter 2 Looking Up by Looking Down
Chapter 3 Others Must Fail
Chapter 4 Self and Other
Chapter 5 Deserved Misfortunes are Sweet
Chapter 6 Justice Gets Personal
Chapter 7 Humilitainment
Chapter 8 There's Something about Envy
Chapter 9 Envy Transmuted
Chapter 10 Dark Pleasures Unleashed
Chapter 11 How Would Lincoln Feel?
Conclusion