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The Widening Scope of Shame by Melvin R. Lansky (Editor), Andrew P. Morrison (Editor) (2-Feb-1998) Paperback
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August 17, 2024
Recommended to all inheritors of the human condition.
Shame is a vast affect touching on every aspect of life. I hadn't fully appreciated quite what shame is until now, as few do, as it's the nature of shame to be suppressed, thus disallowing reflection. Any negative emotion we experience is likely to have an element of shame—anger, distress, fear—emotions being admixtures of the broader affects. Even disruptions of positive affects produce an element of shame, thus pointing our attention toward the source of disruption—the most enduring symbol of this is the forbidden fruit.
Our culture seems to want to dispel shame as something unnatural, foisted upon us by cultural conditioning, but it's a primordial feature of the human condition and can't merely be vanquished by reconfiguring our cultural norms. Denying shame only increases its charge, however repressed it remains. Better to embrace it, realize that it's not something to be escaped but properly understood and processed and holistically calibrated. Negative affects have to be given their due, allowing them full expression, and exhaustion, and dissipation; whereas attending to positive affects causes them to increase.
Shame is a vast affect touching on every aspect of life. I hadn't fully appreciated quite what shame is until now, as few do, as it's the nature of shame to be suppressed, thus disallowing reflection. Any negative emotion we experience is likely to have an element of shame—anger, distress, fear—emotions being admixtures of the broader affects. Even disruptions of positive affects produce an element of shame, thus pointing our attention toward the source of disruption—the most enduring symbol of this is the forbidden fruit.
Our culture seems to want to dispel shame as something unnatural, foisted upon us by cultural conditioning, but it's a primordial feature of the human condition and can't merely be vanquished by reconfiguring our cultural norms. Denying shame only increases its charge, however repressed it remains. Better to embrace it, realize that it's not something to be escaped but properly understood and processed and holistically calibrated. Negative affects have to be given their due, allowing them full expression, and exhaustion, and dissipation; whereas attending to positive affects causes them to increase.
Displaying 1 of 1 review