What is "abjection"

Abjection \Ab*jec"tion\ ([a^]b*j[e^]k"sh[u^]n), n. [F. abjection, L. abjectio.]

1. The act of bringing down or humbling. ``The abjection of the king and his realm.''
   --Joye.

2. The state of being rejected or cast out. [R.]

   An abjection from the beatific regions where God, and his angels and saints, dwell forever.
   --Jer. Taylor.

3. A low or downcast state; meanness of spirit; abasement; degradation.

   That this should be termed baseness, abjection of mind, or servility, is it credible?
   --Hooker.

early 15c., from Old French abjection (14c.), from Latin abjectionem (nominative abjectio) "dejection, despondency," literally "a throwing away," noun of action from past participle stem of abicere (see abject).

n. 1 A low or downcast condition; meanness of spirit; abasement; degradation. (First attested from around (1350 to 1470).) 2 (context obsolete chiefly figuratively English) Something cast off; garbage. (Attested from around (1350 to 1470) until the mid 16^th century.) 3 (context obsolete English) The act of bringing down or humbling; casting down. (Attested from the early 16^th century until the mid 17^th century.) 4 (context obsolete English) The act of casting off; rejection. (Attested from the early 17^th century until the mid 17^th century.) 5 (context biology mycology English) The act of dispersing or casting off spores.

n. a low or downcast state; "each confession brought her into an attitude of abasement"- H.L.Menchken [syn: abasement, degradation]

The term abjection literally means "the state of being cast off." While in common usage it has connotations of degradation, baseness and meanness of spirit, the term has been explored in post-structuralism as that which inherently disturbs conventional identity and cultural concepts. Among the most popular interpretations of abjection is Julia Kristeva's (pursued particularly in her work Powers of Horror), which describes the subjective horror one, and therefore one's body, experiences when one is confronted with what she terms one's "corporeal reality", or a breakdown in the distinction between what is self and what is other. The concept of abjection is best described as the process by which one separates their sense of self – be that physical and biological, social or cultural – from that which they consider intolerable and infringes upon their 'self', otherwise known as the abject. The abject is, as such, the "me that is not me."

Kristeva's concept of abjection is utilized commonly and effectively to explain popular cultural narratives of horror and misogyny, and builds on the traditional psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan.