One word to describe this type of embarrassment

I have searched for a single word in English that expresses this condition: If I watch something on television ( most notably "slap-stick humor" ), I find my face flushed, hot and prickly; there is an extreme embarrassment and involuntary turning of my head away; my mind registers the input as being incredibly stupid and revolting; my stomach turns with a sickening pain; the feeling is extreme enough to be considered physical pain, as well as psychological. Imagine sitting in a chair watching an old Jerry Lewis comedy on TV, and the silly tone of his speech, as well as his body antics, make me cringe with the above condition. Any words to describe this?


What you are describing sounds like vicarious embarrassment. Apparently, like Schadenfreude (German, meaning satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else's misfortune), it has no English equivalent.

Here is a summary article, 14 More Wonderful Words With No English Equivalent from the site Mental Floss, that give a couple of words that can be borrowed (just like schadenfreude):

German: Fremdschämen

Finnish: Myötähäpeä

both described this way:

The kindler, gentler cousins of Schadenfreude, both these words mean something akin to "vicarious embarrassment.” Or, in other words, that-feeling-you-get-when-you-watch-Meet the Parents.


Mortified

to subject to severe and vexing embarrassment

Ref: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mortify


I would say, "I am repulsed by what I just witnessed."

The Macmillan Dictionary has two definitions for repulsion, both of which could be how your examples make you feel:

1) a strong feeling of disliking someone or something that is so unpleasant that you feel slightly sick when you see them or think about them

2) physics an electrical or magnetic force that makes things move away from each other


The word cringe might be useful here. It is to have a physical reaction to something that triggers your senses in a disruptive way. It doesn't necessarily mean you are revolted by it or think it intrinsically malicious or morally bad. But unlike just saying you are "embarrassed" it points the source of the reaction as coming from something outside yourself.

You could also describe the material itself as being cringeworthy (oxforddictionaries.com lists it as a single-word.)


I would call it Suffering.

Suffering broadly may be categorized as physical or psychological, aka mental. It may come in all degrees of intensity, from mild to intolerable. Low-magnitude suffering may be called discomfort, whereas high-magnitude suffering is called agony.