Schadenfreude "plus"?

Question

I have a question about a word I rather hope exists in the English language. Perhaps one of you can help me.

So, the word "schadenfreude", borrowed from German, means to take pleasure in the sufferings of others. Here's what I want to know: is there a word to describe the feeling of pleasure one derives from forcing another person to do the right thing, in ADDITION to the pleasure one feels because that person is made so miserable in the process? "The right thing" could be to satisfy their responsibilities if they have failed to do so in the past, work hard if they've historically been exceptionally lazy, or something else along those lines. Basically, making a person who is somehow awful toe the line, snap to, shape up, clean up their act, whatever--they're made to do right, they hate every second of it, and the person who's forcing them to do better when they'd really rather just keep being a sucky excuse for a human is loving every minute of it. THAT feeling.

Interested to see if this gets any responses and looking forward to what they might be! Feel free to ask for better examples or more clarity if necessary.

Answer 1

We borrowed the German 'schadenfreude' because there was no simple and common English expression for it. It seems unlikely that there would be a common English expression for this even more fine-grained feeling.

Given that the person deriving the pleasure is the one inflicting the pain, sadism works better than schadenfreude, since schadenfreude usually denotes (in my idiolect, at least) pleasure derived from observing or hearing about others' independent misfortunes, not misfortunes inflicted by the subject.

Maybe the neologisms altruistic sadism or paternalistic sadism get at what you want.

Answer 2

While not a word or term for the feeling, those experiencing the sensation sound like the morality police

one of many names used to describe groups of people whose job (often self-appointed) is to enforce standards of moral behavior and religious adherence among the general public.

rationalwiki.org

There is a similar concept specific to India known as the moral police

a blanket term used to describe vigilante groups which act to enforce a code of morality in India

Wikipedia

A related, but much more generic term related to the feeling described is self-righteousness. Oxford Dictionaries Online defines self-righteous as

Having or characterized by a certainty, especially an unfounded one, that one is totally correct or morally superior: self-righteous indignation and complacency

Note that this sensation may exist without the person experiencing it taking any action to enforce those beliefs. It also does not suppose those feelings are justified, and in fact, is often used to suggest they are not.

Answer 3

I believe there are words or phrases describing the feelings of the person watching the wrongdoer correct the error of their ways...

• smugness
• gloating
• satisfaction to see the person get their comeuppance
• satisfaction to see the person get their just desserts
• validation

Answer 4

There is, to the best of my knowledge, no such word that exists to describe such a moment. However, a common allotrope I have heard is well intentioned paternalism where paternalism, in particular:

the policy or practice on the part of people in authority of restricting the freedom and responsibilities of those subordinate to or otherwise dependent on them in their supposed interest.

Moreover, I would like to add some clarity to your definition of schadenfreude:

• It is pleasure derived from the misfortune not suffering of others, where the distinction between these two lies mainly in the degree of harm
• I think you should also make the distinction that this pleasure is usually taken in secret, and as such is termed malicious