Emergenza sociale e disgusto

The reflection offered in this paper stems from a recent Italian experience: the involvement of some emergency expert psychologists in the state promoted extraordinary plane to solve the so-called "garbage emergency" in Campania. The present article aims at clarifying in which terms and in which ways can emergency psychology be useful in those contexts. Therefore, the reflection begins with a statement about the discipline's distinctive object and with the suggestion of limiting its involvement, in the so-called "social emergencies", to psychosocial interventions to be provided in the post-emergency reconstruction phase. In this phase, psychology's primary responsibility is to mentalize problems, helping groups to acknowledge that, behind hurried actions and thoughtless emotive responses, are shared cultural values and attitudes. Therefore, the contribution of psychology, beside other disciplines, becomes in such contexts that of working for the development of a new culture, which is able to cope with the challenges that in the past caused the crisis. With regard to "garbage emergency" specific case, the thesis is discussed that new shared constructive attitudes may begin to develop on the basis of disgust and contempt emotions, often used in social dynamics to spot status differences.