Freudenfreude

Photo by Jacqueline Munguía (Unsplash)

I recall one of my professors in graduate school saying, “The Germans have a word for it; it’s…” and, after giving the word, adding, “The Germans have a word for everything.”

They really do.

Consider the word schadenfreude. It refers to the experience of joy or pleasure that comes from learning of the misfortune of others. No, I don’t know of an English equivalent. That’s probably why the word is used so much by those in the English-speaking world—we engage in a lot of it. 

Just think about the secret sense of satisfaction you can feel when:

You’re a pastor and a pastor of a larger, more “successful” church in town is caught up in a moral scandal that costs him his job and greatly diminishes the church’s attendance.

A neighbor’s lawn you have long envied is torn up by a utility company laying fiber.

You run into an old college friend who was always “perfect” in looks, making you feel more than a bit insecure, and she has put on at least 50 pounds.

A rising coworker in your group loses a major client and is demoted.

Yes, we get schadenfreude. 

But less known is its counterpart, freudenfreude. It speaks to the joy, pleasure or satisfaction that comes from learning of the good fortune or success of others. Again, I’m not sure what we would have to offer along those lines in English, but I’m also not sure we would have much use for it if we did. Schadenfreude is in our wheelhouse; freudenfreude is not.

Consider the following scenarios, and ask yourself – honestly – what would your first, most visceral reaction be?

You find out that the child of a fellow homeschooling mom in your co-op got into an Ivy League college.

You are single, and your best friend begins dating someone, it turns serious, and they get engaged.

A friend tells you about their new second home in the mountains.

You spent eight hours on Ticketmaster, struck out on Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, and then read about the happy people on Facebook who got their tickets to both in minutes.

The more I have reflected on this, the more I have become convinced that schadenfreude is a sin of the spirit, and freudenfreude is a fruit of the Spirit. Schadenfreude is rooted in envy, one of the darkest of the seven deadly sins. 

Envy is a vice of proximity—the closer someone is to us in terms of vocation, temperament, gifts, or position, the more fertile the soil is in which envy grows. In the classic pattern, notes theologian Cornelius Plantinga, the prosperous resents the rich, the 3:58 miler resents the 3:54 miler, the pretty resent the beautiful, and the hardworking B+ student resents the straight-A student, especially the happy-go-lucky one who never seems to study. Drawing from this aspect of envy, Dante doomed the envious in his fictitious portrayal of hell to having their eyes eternally sewn shut. All their lives they had allowed their vision to focus on others. Now their eyes would be forever closed in punishment.       

The damage of envy doesn’t end with the harm it does to us. The desire to have what others have extends to us wanting to stir the sin of envy in others. In fact, envy stands alone in this regard. There is nothing within us wanting to generate more pride and anger, more sloth or greed, within the heart of another person toward ourselves. Yet we have a natural predisposition to want to bring forth the sin of envy in others. And this isn’t just a casual desire. Striving to become the focus of another’s envy has few equals in terms of motivation and satisfaction. Knowing that others desire what we have breeds a sense of self-worth and security that props up our wobbling egos. That’s the false reward of envy.

Envy doesn’t stop at wanting what another person has or striving to get someone else to want what we have. It goes on to breed dislike, even hatred, toward the one who possesses what we desire. This is captured in the word itself, which is drawn from the Latin invidia, which means “to look maliciously upon.” The Greek term, as used in the New Testament, literally refers to having an “evil eye.”

Contrast that with the simple admonition of Scripture: “Rejoice with those who rejoice” (Romans 12:15). And by the way, freudenfreude is derived from the word “joy.”

And just as the sin of envy is destructive, the virtue of joy is life-giving.

As a recent article in the New York Times noted, freudenfreude closely resembles positive empathy—the ability to experience someone else’s positive emotions. A small 2021 study examined positive empathy’s role in daily life and found that it propelled kind acts, like helping others. Sharing in someone else’s joy can also foster resilience, improve life satisfaction and help people cooperate during a conflict.

So the next time you hear of someone’s joy,

… join in.

James Emery White

Sources

Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be.

Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Purgatory.

Juli Fraga, “The Opposite of Schadenfreude Is Freudenfreude. Here’s How to Cultivate It.” The New York Times, November 28, 2022, read online.

Gregory John Depow, Zoë Francis, and Michael Inzlicht, “The Experience of Empathy in Everyday Life,” Sage Journals, August 2021, read online.

Sylvia A. Morelli, Matthew D. Lieberman, and Jamil Zaki, “The Emerging Study of Positive Empathy,” Social and Personality Psychology Compass, September 2015, read online.

American Psychological Association found HERE.