Wikify: date=November 2007

Humiliation (also called stultification) is the abasement of pride, which creates mortification or leads to a state of being humbled or reduced to lowliness or submission. It can be brought about through bullying, intimidation, physical or mental mistreatment or trickery, or by embarrassment if a person is revealed to have committed a socially or legally unacceptable act. Whereas humility can be sought alone as a means to de-emphasise the ego, humiliation must involve other person(s), though not necessarily directly or willingly. Acting to humiliate yourself may be linked to a personal belief (as with mortification of the flesh, with some religions), or it can be part of erotic humiliation where the belittling activity provides emotional and/or sexual arousal or heightened sensation.

Punishment or interrogation tactic

Humiliation of one person by another (the humiliator) is often used as a way of asserting power over them, and is a common form of oppression, bullying or abuse used in a police, military, or prison context during legal interrogations or illegal torture sessions. Many now-obselete public punishments were deliberately designed to be humiliating, e.g. tarring and feathering lawbreakers, pillory, "mark of infamy" (stigma) as a means of "making an example" of a person and presenting a deterrent to others. Some of the states in America have experimented with humiliating or shaming lawbreakers by publishing their names and indicating their offense (e.g., with soliciting prostitutes or drinking and driving. The Chinese government routinely humiliates lawbreakers by parading them in public with a sign around their neck indicating their offense. Humiliation activities such as stripping a prisoner naked or having them simulate sex acts, as done by US Military Police in Iraq at Abu Graib, are often contrary to policies in police or prison settings. Nevertheless, these humiliation tactics have been used by secret police and military interregators as a way of eliciting cooperation or breaking down the resistance of a prisoner. Although in the past humiliation was relegated to those having wealth, it is frequently used these days in places like offices where people with power and status abuse their position by humiliating their colleagues, seniors etc. There has been a growth in frequency of such cases.

Voluntary sexual practices

However, it can also be a consensual sexual practice, as part of an agreement with a sex partner to engage in erotic humiliation as part of bondage and domination activities. This is a type of psychological humiliation in a sexual context, whereby one person gains arousal or erotic excitement from the powerful emotions of being humiliated and demeaned, or of humiliating another; often (but not always) in conjunction with sexual stimulation of one or both partners in the activity. The humiliation need not be sexual in itself, as with many other sexual activities it is the feelings derived from it which are sought, regardless of the nature of the actual activity. It can be verbal or physical, and can be relatively private or public. Often it can become ritualized, and unlike some sexual variations it can also be easily carried out over a long distance or online. The distinction between humiliation and dominance in an activity such as erotic spanking is that the sought-after effect is primarily the humiliation; the activity is just a means to that end.