Tarja LaineThinkers

Shame is an evaluative statement by the self in relation to the self whereas guilt is an evaluative statement by the self in relation to an action one has committed. In shame we become the object as well as the subject of shame. In guilt the object is external to the self, since the focus of guilt is upon the action that does not meet certain cultural standards.

Shame is of all emotions, most directly revealing of the intersubjective foundations of individual existence, as it is simultaneously an interpretive process, a way of seeing oneself from the standpoint of others, and a sensed inability to take control of one's identity and organize a response.

Shame is shame of oneself before the other... these two structures are inseparable.

Shame enters into being as a disruption in the circuit of identity-constituting moments of seeing and being seen, and at the same time it expresses desire to reconstitute that circuit.

Shame operates only after interest or enjoyment has been activated... it inhabits one, or the other, or both. The innate activator of shame is the incomplete reduction of interest or joy.

Shame 1s 2ssential feature is the sense of loss of freedom. In shame my self is not only seen as an object in the world of another and experienced as objectified, it is also sensed as taken by forces beyond my subjective control, since the other can take a point of view on me that I cannot.