A historical, philosophical detective story into what makes us human What does our reaction to the -unmentionable, - the -indescribable, - and the -repellant- tell us about ourselves? Disgust was once considered our primary emotion, and as a result has fascinated philosophers, scientists, anthropologists and psychologists for centuries. In a series of colorful scenarios Christopher Turner explores our obsession with repulsion through some of the greatest figures of the modern age. From a dinner party with Immanuel Kant and Charles Darwin's stomach complaints, to how Sigmund Freud used his patient's nightmares to express disgust and why Jean-Paul Sartre saw it as a signature of the world's meaninglessness. Even today, evolutionary biologists are exploring what disgust tells us about who we really are. For as one thinker says, -Anything that reminds us we are animals elicits disgust.-.