Psychologists define humiliation as the removal of any ability to claim status. Severe humiliation has been described as ‘an annihilation of the self’. It’s thought to be a uniquely toxic state and is implicated in some of worst behaviours the human animal engages in, from serial murder to honour killings to genocide. In story, an experience of humiliation is often the origin of the antagonist’s dark behaviour, whether it be murderous Cassius or Gone Girl’s scheming Amy Elliot Dunne,
