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 (Forward and backward navigation buttons only work on 4.0 browsers) Copyright © 1997, Jay Ligda. All rights reserved. Published by Humans in the Universe and Jay Ligda. Shame
Shame is the feeling that one is no good. While it has its place in a healthy psyche, when it is chronic, it can become the core of one's identity giving rise to "depression, alienation, self-doubt, isolating loneliness, paranoid and schizoid phenomena" as well as many other disorders (Bradshaw, 1988). Shame in the healthy psyche is related to humility and therefore spirituality. Shame keeps us from believing we are bigger than we really are. Shame is the feeling one has when they act out of harmony with humanity. We become "knocked back down to size." A person who was denying their shame would become grandiose in their own eyes. Guilt would be a related feeling that triggers an action to right the wrong one has done. "Shame is the feeling related to the statement, "I am no good," while guilt is related to the statement, "Something I did was not good." Shame becomes chronic in a dysfunctional situations when one believes they are chronically no good (the temporary feeling that humiliates does not go away). This would happen if someone is constantly surrounded by negative messages about themselves by their elders and peers. They will eventually come to believe these messages and live in chronic shame. Shame is sometimes understood as the "master emotion" (Karen, 1992).
(This work is a all or part of an original work first published/written for John F. Kennedy University: Final Integrative Project, Mar1996.)
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