Very often you can hear an unflattering comment about a person, which will sound like this: "Yes, he is a real misanthrope." Why this word has a not entirely positive semantic connotation, you can understand if we consider the concept of misanthropy.
Misanthropy in many books and dictionaries is translated as follows: "hatred", "dislike, contempt." It is believed that misanthropy is a person's rejection of other people, alienation in society, a manifestation of an irresistible enmity towards other people.
Perfectionists
As a rule, a person with a penchant for misanthropy is immediately visible: he does not like communication, avoids talking with strangers, most often he has a narrow circle of friends, or even none at all. Such people are very critical and intolerant of others, often have a very nasty character and therefore live in solitude.
Misanthropy is not a disease or a mental deviation, it is not a given by nature, but an acquired character trait that will not necessarily dominate, therefore psychologists often talk about the so-called hidden misanthropes - people who are adequate to society, but critical of others, themselves …
Misanthropy often leads to the impossibility of adapting in the society of other people, it can be a philosophy of life or a consequence of disappointment in life, people, social foundations. This quality can also be inherent in perfectionist people, i.e. those who make excessive demands on others. The inability to get a result that meets their needs leads perfectionists to think about the imperfection of the world and people, to dislike them.
Idealists
Another type of misanthrope is the idealist. They create their ideal world and people in it. This is their main problem. When idealists are confronted with reality, their picture of ideality collapses. Intransigence to the shortcomings of people repels them and violates psychological comfort, because misanthrope-idealists, as a rule, are people with a fine mental organization.
It is worth noting that there are many famous people for whom their misanthrope characterization did not prevent them from gaining respect in society, among them such people as Bill Murray, Ambrose Gwynneth Bierce, Alexander Gordon, Yegor Letov. Their fields of activity are very diverse - from acting, writing, journalism to singing.
It is curious that psychologists see in dislike for others the reason for dislike for oneself. That is, in fact, these people do not love themselves, they are annoyed by their own weak qualities, therefore, finding even the slightest manifestation of these qualities in other people, they come into a state of anger. Of course, this behavior is a manifestation of weakness, but it often transforms into a desire for self-improvement.
In misanthropes, there is practically no feeling of compassion and empathy for other people; they are extremely indifferent to other people's problems.