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The Widening Scope of Shame
The Widening Scope of Shame is the first collection of papers on shame to appear in a decade and contains contributions from most of the major authors currently writing on this topic. It is not a sourcebook, but a comprehensive introduction to clinical and theoretical perspectives on shame that is intended to be read cover to cover.
The panoramic scope of this multidisciplinary volume is evidenced by a variety of clinically and developmentally grounded chapters; by chapters explicating the theories of Silvan Tomkins and Helen Block Lewis; and by chapters examining shame from the viewpoints of philosophy, social theory, and the study of family systems. A final section of brief chapters illuminates shame in relation to specific clinical problems and experiential contexts, including envy, attention deficit disorder, infertility, masochism, the medical setting, and religious experience.
This collection will be of special interest to psychoanalytically oriented readers. It begins with a chapter charting the evolution of Freud's thinking on shame, followed by chapters providing contemporary perspectives on the role of shame in development, and the status of shame within the theory of narcissism. Of further psychoanalytic interest are two reprinted classics by Sidney Levin on shame and marital dysfunction.
In both depth of clinical coverage and breadth of perspectives, The Widening Scope of Shame is unique in the shame literature. Readable, well organized, and completely up to date, it becomes essential reading for all students of this intriguing and unsettling emotion and of human development more generally.
The panoramic scope of this multidisciplinary volume is evidenced by a variety of clinically and developmentally grounded chapters; by chapters explicating the theories of Silvan Tomkins and Helen Block Lewis; and by chapters examining shame from the viewpoints of philosophy, social theory, and the study of family systems. A final section of brief chapters illuminates shame in relation to specific clinical problems and experiential contexts, including envy, attention deficit disorder, infertility, masochism, the medical setting, and religious experience.
This collection will be of special interest to psychoanalytically oriented readers. It begins with a chapter charting the evolution of Freud's thinking on shame, followed by chapters providing contemporary perspectives on the role of shame in development, and the status of shame within the theory of narcissism. Of further psychoanalytic interest are two reprinted classics by Sidney Levin on shame and marital dysfunction.
In both depth of clinical coverage and breadth of perspectives, The Widening Scope of Shame is unique in the shame literature. Readable, well organized, and completely up to date, it becomes essential reading for all students of this intriguing and unsettling emotion and of human development more generally.
- GenresPsychology
456 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
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